All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy Book Analysis Essay Example

All The Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy, displays the life of a wanna-be cowboy John Grady. All The Pretty Horses is a disheartening novel. Throughout the whole book, John Grady goes through the ups and downs of good and bad with the dark times standing out the most. 

The book is disheartening with the actions that are presented in the novel. In part 1 the book starts with a death that is not very pleasant. “Lastly he looked at the face so caved and drawn among the folds of funeral cloth, the yellowed mustache, the eyelids paper thin. That was not sleeping. That was not sleeping.”(McCarthy 1). For me reading this at first I was confused at what was going on until I figured out that there was the funeral of John Grady’s grandfather. McCarthy uses a sad tone in describing his grandfather in his coffin. The words funeral cloth and eyelids paper-thin describe a fragile old person who is dead.

In part 2 John Grady has to break the horses to tame them. He takes away the soul of the horse to connect it to the rider. “Lastly he said that he had seen the souls of horses and that it was a terrible thing to see. He said that it could be seen under certain circumstances attending the death of a horse because the horse shares a common soul and its separate life only forms it out of all horses and makes it mortal. He said that if a person understood the soul of the horse then he would understand all horses that ever were.” (McCarthy 111). McCarthy’s writing in this is dark. McCarthy saying soul and horses over and over again make the words after stand out.

In part 3 things get dark very fast. Blevins had killed some people to get his horse and gun back. He gets executed for this. “What did you do? I walked up behind him and snatched it out of his belt. That's what I done. And shot him. He come at me. Come at you. Yeah. So you shot him. What choice did I have? What choice, said John Grady. I didnt want to shoot the dumb son of a bitch. That was never no part of my intention. What did you do then? Time I got back to the spring where my horse was at they was on me. That boy I shot off his horse thowed down on me with a shotgun.” (McCarthy 159,160). The use of dialogue in this is different from what McCarthy usually does which makes it stand out. The quick words make it shocking because when McCarthy usually describes a dark thing he puts a lot of words behind it. 

“The next morning crossing the yard Rawlins was set upon by a man with a knife. The man he'd never seen before and the knife was no homemade trucha ground out of a trenchspoon but an italian switchblade with black horn handles and nickle bolsters and he held it at waist level and passed it three times across Rawlins' shirt while Rawlins leaped three times backward with his shoulders hunched and his arms outflung like a man refereeing his own bloodletting.” (McCarthy 189). “The cuchillero's knife clattered on the floor. From the red boutonniere blossoming on the left pocket of his blue workshirt there spurted a thin fan of bright arterial blood. He dropped to his knees and pitched forward dead into the arms of his enemy.” (McCarthy 201). In part 3 it got dark very fast. McCarthy goes straight into describing the bloodshed with great detail. He describes every detail with crisp words that describe the scene perfectly.

In part 4 John Grady tries to get the horses back but takes the captain hostage with Rawlins’s, his, and Blevins’s horse. He ends up getting wounded along with the captain. “Behind him the riders were pulling up their mounts and milling in the road and he levered a fresh round into the rifle and fired again and by now Redbo had turned in the road to face the pull of the rope and the Blevins horse was wholly out of control and he swung around and whacked the captain's arm with the barrel of the rifle to make him drop the reins and he took the reins up and hauled Redbo around and whacked him with the rifle and looked back again.” (McCarthy 269). This section of the book was very disheartening when he had to take back the horses that were his and his friends almost getting killed again. McCarthy’s tone is belligerent. He uses aggressive words such as fired, pull, wholly out of control, swung, and whacked. This creates the scene to be aggressive and agitating when they get injured.

When John Grady tries to give back Rawlins’s horse and asks to go on a journey again but Rawlins says no is disheartening. “You could stay here at the house. I think I'm goin to move on. This is still good country. Yeah. I know it is. But it aint my country. He rose and turned and looked off toward the north where the lights of the city hung over the desert. Then he walked out and picked up the reins and mounted his horse and rode up and caught the Blevins horse by its halter. Catch your horse, he said. Or else he'll follow me. Rawlins walked out and caught the horse and stood holding it. Where is your country? he said. I dont know, said John Grady. I dont know where it is. I dont know what happens to country. Rawlins didnt answer. I'll see you old pardner, said John Grady. All right. I'll see you.” The two were best friends but we see their journey together end here. McCarthy’s tone here is saddening making the two depart going on separate paths. 

All the pretty horses is a disheartening book with McCarthy’s plot and tone. The plot sets the scene while the tone describes it making the scene disheartening. This may go on throughout Grady’s life with his ups and downs in his new journey but it could go different.