This is an essay I wrote for the novel all the pretty horses

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy is a novel which tells the story of a young cowboy named John Grady Cole. The novel takes you on a journey; John and his best friend, Rawlins, travel to Mexico to become ranchers where John falls in love with the beautiful Alejandra and also where he experiences the rough and sometimes tragic life of a cowboy. It shows his development from a naive teenager into a seasoned and experienced man. In the novel Cormac McCarthy suggests that happiness is fluid and in constant ebb and flow. This is illustrated when John Grady Cole decides to exchange his current life for one in Mexico, his romance with Alejandra and his incarceration in Saltillo.

The novel begins with John’s unhappiness and his willingness to make a change to gain contentment. John Grady is disappointed with his life in San Angelo; his girlfriend, Mary Catherine, left him for an older man with a car, his mother is selling their ranch and his grandfather has just passed away. The Wild West is ending in Texas as John “rode out to ... the end of something” that was “Frail and brittle”, drastically changing what John Grady knows. There is nothing left for him in Texas except a dying father. All he longs for is a ranch life with horses. John plans to leave for Mexico where a rustic cowboy lifestyle can still be attained. When John tells his best friend Rawlins “I’m already gone” it cements his choice to leave for Mexico and “Ten thousand worlds” of happiness “for the choosing”. John Grady Cole finds bliss in the freedom to roam the country and travel wherever he chooses. In order to enter Mexico, the boys must wade through the Rio Grande, baptising themselves for the new country. Their crossing of the Rio Grande and their biblical emergence gives John the ability to become anyone he chooses and start anew. Cormac McCarthy shows that taking a chance and walking into the unknown can result in complete freedom and happiness.

John Grady also finds sweet joy and bitter disappointment with his Shakespearean romance with Alejandra. Their romance begins on her father’s, Don Hector, ranch where John is employed. They share a similar interest in horses and feel completely comfortable with each other. Their “sweet betrayal” comes to an end when Don Hector is made aware of their relationship. For this reason Don Hector allows the police to take Rawlins and John Grady Cole away. While imprisoned John uses every happy memory except Alejandra to keep him sane. He saves her memories because he knows there will be a time when only she can save him. John Grady also attempts to keep Alejandra’s memory, his greatest happiness, untarnished and whole so that he may hold on to those jovial days. When John is finally freed he sets out to find Alejandra and offer himself completely to her. However, their great love cannot continue because Alejandra has bartered their relationship in exchange for his release. Alejandra is forced to choose between a lustful romance with John or respect and her family’s love. Alejandra chooses to keep her promise to her family and never see John Grady again. She tells John she “didn’t know that” her father “would stop loving” her. They part ways both in anguish and loss. John experiences his greatest happiness with Alejandra and feels “cold and soulless” when she cannot stay with him. Alejandra could never have been happy again if John had remained incarcerated. She gains peace that his safety has been secured and that he is alive. Cormac McCarthy depicts that in the search for happiness sacrifices and compromises must be made; one cannot have the complete and full contentment they want, there will always be give and take.

John Grady’s and Rawlins’ happiness is compromised when they are imprisoned in Saltillo. Their constant day to day struggle to remain alive, weathers the boys. His encounter with the assassin in jail ruins John Grady Cole. In his fight to stay alive he sustains multiple injuries and ends up killing the boy. This sinful act haunts his mind. It is the brutal reality of a cowboy lifestyle that he had not anticipated. Although John is happy to be released, he cannot justify his actions to himself and he searches for someone to tell him it is okay. After a short trial about John’s horses, he visits the judge to discuss the incident. The judge reinforces that he made a choice, the choice to be alive and that if he had to do it again he would. While this comforts his mind, John Grady continues to struggle with his actions and the concept of right and wrong, especially with the assassin and Blevins’ execution. His inability to move past these events brings him constant unhappiness. With his loss of innocence, he lost carefree joy; he will always have the boy’s blood on his hands and a heavy conscious. Cormac McCarthy shows that one’s state of happiness is often out of one’s control and is a result of instinct and nature.

Cormac McCarthy suggests that happiness is in constant circle, coming and going, never stationary only temporary. It can be found in the prospect of a new life and a new love. And that it can be forsaken in sacrifice and survival. John Grady Cole experiences ecstasy from his own actions and Alejandra’s, and loses some of his essence from self preservation and compromise.