Novel Adventure

All the Pretty

Horses
Author Year Published Original Language
Cormac McCarthy 1992 English

THEMES

Coming of Age As the last in a line of Texas ranchers, John Grady Cole is exiled from
the only life he has known. He and a friend ride off on their horses to
with Ideals Intact Mexico on an idealized—yet treacherous—journey to realize their
dreams. Trouble with the law follows when John Grady falls in love,
but through pain and loss he gains wisdom.

Romanticism & Reality

John Grady believes in the power of love,

but brute realism is often more powerful.

Coming of Age

John Grady searches for fulfillment,

loses his innocence, and finds purpose.

Violence

People may pursue harmony, but there is

no life without conflict and bloodshed.

All the Pretty Horses

by the Numbers
Symbols

Blood
3 Symbolizes the price John Grady
pays for what he loves—horses,
Volumes in the Border
Alejandra, his life
Trilogy, of which All the
Pretty Horses is the first

2 Horses

Literary awards the Represent connection with centuries

novel won in 1992: the of adventure, romance, and battle
National Book Award
and National Book
Critics Circle Award

Religion

Symbolizes John Grady’s journey

2000 to understand life and God’s will

Year a major film

adaption of the novel was
released starring Matt
Damon as John Grady Author
McCarthy, who grew up in
Tennessee, went to Texas in his
2007 30s and endured poverty as a
budding writer. His award-winning
Year McCarthy won fiction—including short stories,
the Pulitzer Prize for plays, screenplays, and
The Road novels—often uses Western
settings, sparse sentences, and
stark images in the Southern CORMAC MCCARTHY
gothic style. BORN 1933

Main Characters
Friendship Romance Family Murders

Jimmy Blevins
Runaway; follows John Grady
and Rawlins to Mexico

The Captain Lacey Rawlins

Brutal Mexican lawman; John Grady’s impatient best

murders Blevins friend and traveling companion

John Grady Cole

Teenager skilled with horses;
passionate about his values

Dueña Alfonsa Don Héctor

Alejandra’s educated, Rocha y Villareal
manipulative great-aunt Wealthy Mexican ranch owner

Alejandra
Don Rocha’s beautiful daughter;
secretly has an affair with John Grady

hat the hell reason you got for stayin?

You think somebody’s goin to die and
leave you somethin?
John Grady, Part 1

Sources: CormacMcCarthy.com, Encyclopaedia Britannica, IMDb,

National Book Critics Circle, National Book Foundation, The Pulitzer Prizes

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