In 1948 America, the Frontier Mentality and the lifestyle that surrounded it began to dissipate as modernization swept the country. Many people gave up their rural lifestyles to work in a city upon realization that western lifestyle was losing popularity. There is one animal that represents the ideals of the forgotten frontier life and allows people to still get a glimpse of the past. The horses in Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses highlight the encroachment of modernity in the West as horses are viewed as a mere commodity in places like America, and with modernity comes the destruction the underlying important values embodied in the creature.
Horses have the unique ability to bring people together. The parents of the protagonist, John Grady Cole, fell in love through their shared affection towards horses. In a conversation with his father, John Grady is exposed to why there is such distance between his parents has occurred. His father explains that “[His] mother and [him] never agreed on a whole lot. She liked horses. [He] thought that was enough.” (24). A relationship begot from a love towards the beautiful creature could not possibly last due to the opposing lifestyles each lived. John Grady’s father respects horses the same way John does and realizes its capacity to connect people. Also, he was not well suited to live in the modern world. He says he tried to but “[He] didnt last long” (25). John Grady’s mother simply loved the way horses looked, as she was more interested in a modern lifestyle and pursued her dream of being an actress. Emotions brought upon through horses has been broken due to modern values that view them as a pretty animal, but the respect associated with their importance to frontier life is gone.
On top of the disunion between his parents, John Grady’s relationship with them is almost nonexistent. His mother has succumbed to a modern lifestyle, so she is disconnected from him. The weak relationship he still has with his father is kept because of their shared respect for horses. After speaking with his father during lunch one day in the town of San Angelo, Texas, he is surprised by a gift waiting for him in the closet of his father’s hotel room. Upon opening the door, he notices that “Standing on the floor along with two pairs of boots and a pile of dirty shirts was a brand new Hamley Formfitter saddle” (14). The saddle represents the style of living that John Grady wishes to pursue, which is being on the frontier. The issue is that America’s frontier is declining at a rapidly, as land is being bought, such as the Cole ranch that his grandfather owned, by industrial business.
The dying relation between John Grady and his father also represents a loss in his identity. While in San Angelo he looked “… at the room on the fourth floor where his father’s shape or father’s shadow would pass behind the gauzy window curtains and then turn and pass back again like a sheetiron bear in a shooting gallery, only slower, thinner, more agonized” (15). The silhouette of John Grady’s father represents the disappearance of his family name in America for there will be nothing left for him once his father is gone.The simile of the bear and his father represents how he has been weakened by the onslaught of modern culture, just like western life. The final threads of love and identity for John Grady in America brought upon by horses between him and his family have been severed due to the losing battle to retain a frontier lifestyle.
While at at the Hacienda de Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción ranch in Mexico, John Grady also forms bonds with others through horses. The owner, Don Hector Rocha y Villareal, shares the same respect for horses. In a conversation with him, Hector seeks his opinion on horse breeding and asks “How much importance do you give to the mare?” (115). John Grady replies to Rocha saying “Same as the sire” (115). This appeases Rocha, as “The Hacendado smiled. [He] happen to agree with [him]” (115). John Grady was able to gain respect from Rocha through his expertise regarding horses, which illustrates how the animal is able to unite people across different cultures.
Horses have more than the ability to bring people together, for they can also project one’s character. In a conversation with a ranch worker at La Purisma, Luis, John Grady discusses the importance of horses. Luis explains to him how the way to understanding humans is through horses, for “… the souls of horses mirror the souls of men more closely than men suppose and that horses also love war” (111). The importance of war being mentioned is because it is an integral part of human history. Horses symbolize an extension of humans, but not many realize this. They have been part of human history for a long time and have become critical to human identity. Not only this, but horses have a love of war manifested within them, illustrating how they are very much human. However, the use of cars and other vehicles has made the horse obsolete in many places like America, which prompts him to leave for Mexico where horses and frontier life are preserved.
When first entering the ranch, John Grady saw Alejandra, Rocha’s daughter and noted that “… the horse she rode was a black Arabian saddlehorse… she wore a flat crowned hat of black felt with a wide brim and her black hair was loose… The she pushed the horse into a gaited rack and disappeared down the road” (94). John Grady was mesmerized by her beauty, and connected her looks to the color of the horse. This highlights their importance, for horses reflect the persona of their rider. The description of black also reflects the presence of negative connotations associated with Alejandra. This is because his feelings towards her will ultimately be his demise of life on the ranch. Even though he was escaping the modernity of America, he is still viewed as more modern than others in Mexico. In a game of billiards with Hector, also the father of Alejandra, he tells John Grady that “One country is not another country” (145). Despite his attempts to escape modernization, John Grady can not connect with the lifestyle he wishes to live, for his American values do not reconcile with those in Mexico. Alejandra’s horse symbolizes the beauty in which he seeks, yet will not be able to attain due to cultural differences, as warned by Hector, and thus impeding his search for a frontier lifestyle.In Bon Jovi’s “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” the speaker says “There’s only one place they call me one of their own. Just a hometown boy born a rolling stone”. The tone of the lyrics are upbeat but also defeated, for the speaker sings the last sentence slower than the first, as if he/she is confessing their fate. He/she was raised in a small town like San Angelo, and like John Grady was destined to travel the lands in search for happiness, yet they will never find it. Also like him, the speaker in the song searches for a place to be other than where they started, prompting the response “Who says you can’t go home”, which is in America where they both belong.
Prior to reaching La Purisima, John Grady and Rawlins met another boy on horseback named Jimmy Blevins. He was a young American like them who ran away to live a simpler life in Mexico. He and the boys are soon chased after by rangers after Blevins attempts to reclaim his horse from a Mexican who claimed it during a storm. Eventually he is executed in the woods for killing a man while attempting to retrieve it. John Grady and Rawlins idly stand by, so John blames himself for Blevins’s death because he felt as if he could have done something to save him. Instead, he heeded to Rawlins’s words and decided to stay quiet, as to not jeopardize their lives. After John Grady returns to Texas from Mexico, he is seen with his horse and Jimmy’s as “…horse and rider and horse passed on and their long shadows passed in tandem like the shadow of a single being. Passed and paled into the darkening land, the world to come” (302). John Grady keeps Blevins’s horse because it symbolizes his late friend, and it as a burden he must carry with him, for he takes responsibility for not acting to stop the ranger from dragging Blevins away. Being that horses represent an extension of people, John Grady carries the horse with him as a chronic reminder of his failure to act. Also, he and the two horses travel into the unknown which symbolizes their future, for he has no destination in life anymore and the horses are losing importance in American society due to industrialization.
Coupled with this scene, the tone of it reflects is one of loneliness. John Grady was unable to find the frontier lifestyle he hoped for in Mexico, where horses were well respected, and returns to America where nothing has changed. He still can not accept the modernity of America and therefore rides into the sunset on his horse, lost and wandering wherever life may bring him. While traveling away into the sunset he is observed by a group of indians, but “They had no curiosity about him at all. As if they knew all they needed to know. They stood and watched him pass and watched him vanish… (301). This highlights a core element in American history and especially one during its modernization, American Restlessness. As much as John Grady wants to escape the industrializing environment that surrounds him it may be inevitable. The Indians view John complacently because from the beginning of interactions with Americans, they have observed how they come and go as they please and are never satisfied. This prompts industrialization as they strive to be the most modern and efficient country. The steady deterioration of the west in America undermines the horse’s ability to accentuate the history of humans embedded within it, and rendering it less meaningful.
In the past, horses were a glorious beast used in warfare, for combat was romanticized when it was depicted with the animal. In a conversation with Luis, John Grady learned of his experiences in the Mexican Civil War. Luis said that “… no man who has not gone to war horseback can ever truly understand the horse and he said that supposed he wished that this were not so but that it was so” (111). Conflict is part of human nature. Since man’s origin, fighting has erupted for one reason or another. As time progressed, horses were used in wars to propagate stronger armies. To understand a horse is to understand what it means to be human, for they symbolize the history of man within them, and war is just one aspect.
To continue, John Grady’s envisionment of Indians going to war on horseback exemplifies the history horses share with people. He had left his grandfather’s funeral on horseback, and while traveling “… the ancient road was shaped before him in the rose and canted light like a dream of the past where the painted ponies and riders of that lost nation came down… and each armed for war which was their life” (5). Like those in Mexico, the Native Americans utilized horses for combat. The tone of John Grady’s thoughts shows his romanticized portrayal of horses. He finds them to be crucial for the existence of the human race as both live for battle. The mention that John Grady’s vision is “like a dream of the past” demonstrates how horses are no longer used for fighting. The modernization of America has led to mechanized weaponry and armored vehicles that render horses useless in warfare.
In contrast, the more modern forms of combat do not involve much glory. After being taken away from the ranch by rangers for crimes associated with Blevins, John Grady and Rawlins lived at prison in Saltillo, Mexico. In an encounter with the prison overlord, Emilio Perez, he demanded money from them although John Grady admitted he was “… diggin a dry hole” (187). This meant that he had no money to give Perez and therefore could not meet his orders. This leads to unforeseen consequences for the boys until they are able to pay up. One such example is in the dining hall when John Grady sits next to a fellow prisoner, who ends up being an assassin sent to kill him by Perez. A brawl between the two erupted and “The cuchillero spoke no word. His movements were precise and without rancor. John Grady knew that he was hired” (200). The symbolic meaning of this event represents how there is no more glory in fighting anymore. Along with modernization comes greed and the cuchillero illustrates this. There was no reason for harming John Grady, for he showed no contempt and killed simply to kill. In the past, men would battle on horseback and it would be an ardent fight to the death. Modern combat has been stripped of passion and glory, along with the use of horses. Consequently, a piece of human history has been tarnished.
Along with a past use in warfare, horses have a current use for traveling away from modernizing places like America. John Grady and Rawlins embark on their journey on horseback to Mexico after running away from their homes. While traveling “They rode out along the fenceline and across the open pasture land… They pushed the horses into a lope… and they rode out on the round dais of the earth which alone was dark and no light to it and which carried their figures and bore them into the swarming stars so that they rode not under but among them…” (30). The unification of rider and horse allows the boys to transcend into a dreamlike landscape while on their trek. The elegant description illustrates how horses allow people to become free from bodily chains and rise above the world, which has now become “dark with no light”, symbolizing the unknown of what is to come for the future of Rawlins, John Grady, and horses. It is not always the case though where one can effortlessly cross a landscape on horseback. The encroachment of modernity on the West has created strife for those who intend to travel differently than in an automobile. After their euphoric midnight travel, John Grady and Rawlins encounter a common obstacle for people on horseback, fences. After confronting one, Rawlins asks “How the hell do they expect a man to ride a horse in this country?… They dont, said John Grady” (31). Fences symbolize the battle between modernization and the Frontier Mentality that the boys possess and the loss of freedom encompassed within the West. The use of horses for warfare and travel symbolize the importance they hold in human history and the ideals associated with the Frontier Mentality, but which have been slowly disintegrating from time as the advent of new technologies replace them.
The modernization of the United States has taken away from the horse’s ability to express the freedom to roam. After his grandfather’s funeral, John Grady feels a sense of isolation from American lifestyle. He said that “The Grady name was buried with that old man the day the norther blew the lawn chairs over the dead cemetery grass…” (7). The Northern winds symbolize how modern concepts and beliefs have swept across the country and is ruining important aspects of John Grady’s life, such as living on his grandfather’s ranch. Further, the death of his grandfather and the tone associated with the wind blowing, which is an ominous one, forebodes a hopeless future for John in America. In Bon Jovi’s “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” the speaker says [He/She] was looking for something [he/she] couldn’t replace”. This could be representative of the Frontier Lifestyle John Grady wants. Since he refuses to assimilate into the modern American life, he is doomed to roam in search for what he wants. His love for horses associated with the Frontier Mentality cannot sustain themselves in Texas anymore and makes the decision to run away to Mexico. Also In Bon Jovi’s “Who Says You Can’t Go Home”, the speaker says “[He/She] was a gypsy lost in the twilight zone”. This is much like John Grady who, like a gypsy, is always on the move. His search for a western lifestyle keeps him traveling. The Twilight Zone represents America, a place that John Grady is incapable of understanding because of its modernization, so he feels he no longer belongs there. An example of the Frontier Mentality conflicting with America’s modernity is a painting of horses in John Grady’s Grandfather’s office on the ranch and “There were half a dozen of them breaking through a pole corral and their manes were blowing and their eyes wild” (15). The pole corral represents the modern lifestyle in America that views horses as commodities, while the horses breaking through the corral represents how they do not like to be contained, but rather prefer to roam freely. The wildness of the horses shows how the closing of the frontier is bringing about resistance, and people John Grady are trying their hardest to preserve their way of life. Unfortunately for him, the battle has been lost and horses in America are used for not much more than a showcase animal.
While horses can show the transition to modern lifestyle in areas like America, they represent a continuity in the lives of people as well. Horses serve as a constant because modernity takes away forces that would be. In a conversation with Luis, John Grady recalls from him that “… if a person understood the soul of a horse then he would understand all horses that ever were… Finally he said that among men there was no communion as among horses and the notion that men can be understood at all was probably an illusion” (111). Humans have an aptitude to change in many ways throughout their lives, such as appearance, mindset, and future plans. To be able to understand every human would be impossible because everyone is always changing. The notion that horses derive from a single soul illustrates how no matter what horse one has, it will always be the same as others. This communion of horses creates an unaltered aspect of John Grady’s life, which changed when his grandfather died. It allows him to fall back on horses for reassurance, knowing that they will always be there with him and can provide comfort.
Modernization in America takes away presumed constants in John Grady’s life such as his mother and his grandfather’s ranch. As aforementioned, his mother became an actress, a lifestyle he could not understand, and the ranch would be taken over by industries. Family and passions are supposed to be rooted deeply into oneself, but the modernity of America had stripped John Grady of those, which leaves him to fall back on horses to make sense of his life and give him an identity.
Further, horses can be seen as extensions of people that reflect their emotions and characteristics. While returning to America, John Grady receives a bullet wound in the leg from a shootout. He cauterizes it to stop his bleeding and “heard the flesh hiss like something on a spit … and he raised up and called out his horse’s name to him softly… that he might ease the fright in the horse’s heart” (275). The fear expressed by his horse, Redbo, illustrates how the two are connected. John Grady may seem to be handling the process with no issues, but inside is frightened like the horse, so he tries to calm Redbo as a way calm himself. Another example is when John Grady recovers Redbo after being separated from him on after he is detained by Mexican rangers. He found his horse at the charro’s house, a man who ordered the execution of Blevins. Upon searching for him near a barn “He called his horse again and located the stall and opened the door… The horse pushed his nose and forehead against John Grady’s chest… and went trotting towards the sunlight in the door without bridle or halter” (263). Like its rider, Redbo is a horse that is strong and loyal. It does not need to be harnessed in order to follow John Grady, nor does Redbo feel uncomfortable doing so.
John Grady is loyal in certain ways such as with Alejandra. Despite warnings from people like her Great Aunt Duena Alfonsa, he continues to be with her while at La Purisima. While talking to her, she says “I want you to be considerate of a young girl’s reputation… you must understand. This is another country” (136). Alfonsa says this because being seen with an outsider along with being a lover with one is not accepted in traditional Mexican values. John Grady himself has become a part of a more modern lifestyle than what Mexicans experience, for he does not quite understand their way of life and is even regarded differently by others.
While working on the ranch with Rawlins, they amaze nearby workers with their unique ability to handle horses. By simply doing their job “The entire complement of vaqueros had come from the bunkhouse to watch…the voice of the breaker still running in their brains like the voice of some god come to inhabit them” (105). The reactions from fellow workers symbolize how John Grady is more modern than others around him which causes such elicited reactions, for he seen to be different from them. Alfonsa, recognizing this as well, forbade him from being with Alejandra. This is important because it shows how even though John Grady left America to escape modernization, he was still changed by it, and therefore ruining his dream of working with horses and even being with his lover. In Bon Jovi’s “Who Says You Can’t Go Home”, the speaker sings that “You take the home from the boy but not the boy from his home”, symbolizing how even though John Grady ran away from America, his identity as an American and the cultural values associated with being one still exists within him, causing a barrier that divides him from what he wants, Alejandra. The use of horses in certain scenes highlight the effects of modernity on John Grady that cast him to be different than those he wishes to surround him with.
John Grady Cole is a boy in search to find the life he wants, one away from the modernity of America. Encompassing his journeys to various locations is horses. The horse is centered in many important parts of John Grady’s life that emphasize numerous examples of its values to humans. Industrialization in America leads to a deterioration of these values, as people recognize them less and less. John Grady is the window in which one can see the various aspects of what a horse represents or is capable of expressing. Without the use of horses, the underlying message of how modernization destroys human history and portions of one’s identity would not be conveyed as effectively.