All the Pretty Horses by John Grady, and the American West

While the American West seems to be a thing of the past or something which never really existed at all (at least not the way it was thought of or dramatized), for John Grady Cole, the idea of the American West is to carve out a niche for himself. This niche must be carved out in a more unclaimed place like Mexico. Grady attempts to fulfill a new place; he takes the myth of the cowboy that never really was and merges it with the land to create a realistic/romantic image of what the cowboy may have really been without the glamorization of Hollywood. However, he also lives that image in the untamed land of Mexico. While this novel has much to do with duality, it is about finding one's real place in life.

Grady leaves the ranch with the passing of his grandfather with the idea that there is nothing left for him. He knows that by his mother divorcing his father and selling the ranch, his life will change dramatically. Attempting to hold on to this "outdated" way of life, he goes to Mexico. He strikes out with his friend Rawlins for Mexico. He has been shaped/shaped himself by the image of the cowboy in that he lives according to a strict code that is entirely self-imposed. He values honor, responsibility, and skill. He has a gift with horses and relishes the solitude of the West. The novel itself is a closing, the end of the possibility of horseback riders in the West. The end of the cowboy. As John Grady stands outside his grandfather's funeral, he "stood like a man come to the end of something". He acknowledges the idea that he must now make his own way and his own place by saying, "there was something missing for the world to be right or he in it" (23). He sets about his journey hoping to find what is missing.

While he is at the end, he also reaches a new beginning. The novel is cyclical in that it begins and ends with a funeral. It also begins and ends with Grady riding off into the sunset. He begins with an idea of the cowboy much romanticized with the idea of the mythic American west. When he goes to Mexico, he creates a new image, less romanticized; in this he creates a completely new space for himself.

The novel consistently explores the link between the present and the past. As Faulkner says, "the past is not, in fact, past: it is instead present, and unavoidable". Like the heroes of our past, these men are stoic, avoid introspection or conversation about anything deep. They state facts. Grady himself is quite silent purposefully. This code is what causes him to find Blevins and the horse. It is also what drives him to track down Alejandra and not to take Perez's offer. Grady disagrees with Perez about truth. Grady emphasized that truth is what happens (actions) not what someone says happened (words out of someone's mouth). However, Grady must to some degree agree with Perez's statement about anything being possible because in many ways he lives life at the same time he is creating a new life for himself.

One way in which he reinvents his image or makes a new place for himself is in the area of romanticism. Cowboys of the American West were not romantics, but Grady is. When he sees Alejandra, he is almost defenseless against her. Love at first sight is not the norm for a cowboy. He shows real sentiment and feeling toward Alejandra, not the usual "macho" sentiment of a cinematic cowboy.

He carves out his own niche in this novel with his attitudes about religion. It is important the Rawlins talks a lot about God, even incidentally, but Grady never does. The old Mexican prays to God. Alfonsa even discusses God and fate at some length with Grady. John Grady persists in believing that humans control their own lives to a large extent. Grady instead, faces every challenge with "hell fire and damnation" (14).

Grady carves a new niche for himself in comparison with American westerns in that he does acknowledge pain. He is like western heroes in that he does what is good for him even if it causes him pain. Unlike typical heroes, he does not do it with grace and style. In fact, he cusses like a sailor and screams when he burns his wound with his fiery hot gun. In other words, he admits to weakness in a way that is previously unacknowledged by western heroes. More importantly, he expresses emotion at the death of his father. He actually cries, even though he and his father were not necessarily close. However he realizes that he is alone in the world now, without a home literally. As he says to Rawlins, "It ain't my country." He is not even sure where his country is anymore.

In the last scene of the novel, he strikes out yet again to carve out a new niche. All that he is known is gone. He will continue to live by his code, and though the reader feels that he will ultimately fail, we also understand why he assigns value to living the way he does. He is a hero even if he has been beaten down by life and will continue on in exactly his own ways.

The novel itself comes full circle in that it opens with death and ends with death. He leaves to find his own way because of the death of Abuelo and the fact that the ranch that had so long been part of his family would be sold. His mother has divorced his father as well. He experiences cruel life in trying to live like a "cowboy" and in striving for a lifestyle that is long gone. And yet, to some degree he succeeds at capturing that lifestyle. By the end of the novel, he is heading out again, realizing that he has no land anymore. He leaves Rawlins behind this time and "passed and paled into the darkening land, the world to come" (302). He has reconciled himself with a world that "seemed to care nothing for the old or the young or rich or poor or dark or pale or he or she. Nothing for their struggles, nothing for their names. Nothing for the living or the dead" (301). Rather than giving up in the face of this cruel world, he rides on as he will all his life.