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English

3 June, 2019

“​All the Pretty Horses​ - Western or Not?”

Most books pick a genre and stick with it which makes for a good quick read, but

true feats of literature happen when a book makes the reader question if it is a genre

they know, or a new one entirely. There are many factors to consider when deciding the

genre of a book. In the book ​All the Pretty Horses,​ the author Cormac McCarthy makes

readers really ask themselves what genre they are reading. There are several key parts

to the book that make it both a western and not a western, such as the setting of the

book, characters portraying typical cowboy character, and how much the book makes

the reader think. While ​All the Pretty Horses ​is a western at surface level, if looked at

closely, there are many ways that it transcends the western genre and explores other

types of literature.

“They rode through the mountains and they crossed at a barren windgap and set

the horses among the rocks and looked out over the country to the south where the last

shadows were running over the land before the wind and the sun to the west lay blood

red among the shelving clouds and the distant cordilleras ranged down the terminals of

the sky to fade from pale to pale of blue and then to nothing at all”(59). It is lines like this

in the novel​ ​that set the backdrop of a western landscape, making it easy to imagine the

scenery in detail, like an old western film in your head. This novel is built around many
western themes. In the novel, John Grady and Rawlins ride their horses down to Mexico

in hopes of adventure. This leads to the overarching theme of the book being about an

adventure in a wild land on horseback. The book focuses largely on horses and the

landscape the characters are riding on: “[He’d] saddle the horse at daybreak with only

the little desert doves waking in the orchard and the air still fresh and cool and he and

the stallion would come sideways out of the stable with the animal prancing and

pounding the ground and arching its neck”(127). Because of the intricate details the

author uses to paint this landscape, the reader can picture the western scenery in full

detail so that it seems like they are actually there. The themes of horses and wild

landscapes give the book a clear image of a western genre. While the horses and the

old western landscape truly give the reader the feeling of being in the old west and help

to solidify the genre of the story, there are also several ways that this novel transcends

the western genre.

When thinking of a cowboy, most people perceive a tough and hardened man

who is always in control and doesn't let things get to him. While the characters in the

novel act tough and in control sometimes, it seems like more of an act in some places.

This is one of the ways that the author makes the reader question what genre this book

really fits into. Towards the end of the novel, John Grady has to kill a man that is sent to

assassinate him, and it really bothers him. He tells a judge: “When I was in the

penitentiary down there I killed a boy […] It keeps botherin me”(291). A stereotypical

cowboy would not act guilty about killing someone. Because John Grady actually has

feelings about what he did, and doesn’t just act cool and collected about it, it gives the
book a whole different tone. If this book were a true western, John Grady would act like

he did that kind of thing everyday and move on. Since he is actually affected by it,

however, it gives the reader a better sense of who John Grady is as a person and at the

same time takes the genre farther away from familiar territory. As a result of the way the

characters display emotion, the reader has to think much more than they would in a

typical western.

A typical western story is very predictable. Some cowboys go out, have a

gunfight, stop a robbery or rob a train, end of story. This is not the way things take place

in ​All the Pretty Horses​. While this book is based on a western theme, many of the

predictable plot choices do not happen, and in most cases what happens is the opposite

from what would occur in a typical western novel. One example of the stereotypical plot

choice not happening is John Grady’s situation with Alejandra. In a typical western, the

main character would ‘get the girl’ and live happily ever after, but that is not what

happens to John Grady. In exchange for bailing Rawlins and John Grady out of jail,

Alejandra’s great aunt forbids Alejandra from seeing John Grady again: “I intend to see

her. […] She will not break her word to me. You will see”(240). Because not marrying

the girl you love is so different from what would normally happen in a western, it causes

the reader to think about what really makes this genre a western, if the genre is

determined by where the book takes place or what actually happens in the story.

Another part where the book goes way deeper that the standard western is when

Alejandra’s great aunt, Alfonsa, explains to John Grady about her childhood and

upbringing. She goes into lots of details, and has underlying stories about fate that are
difficult for the reader to understand: “Its not so much that I dont believe in [fate]. I dont

subscribe to its nomination. If fate is the law then is fate also subject to the law? At

some point we cannot escape naming responsibility”(241). The complex ideas of fate

that Alfonsa brings up cause the reader to really reflect on what she is saying. Because

most westerns are shallow and without too much underlying stories and meanings, this

hardly even seems like the same type of story. This novel is keeping the western setting

but adding in complexities to really make the reader think.

​ oes anything but.

If most books fit into a standard genre, ​All the Pretty Horses d

While the setting of the book and description of its characters surroundings seem like a

typical western, the way the characters act and react to things, as well as the general

complexity of the novel add parts to the story that the standard western lacks. Because

of this, the reader gets a fuller and more thoughtful story rather than a shallow one for

entertainment purposes only. If ​All the Pretty Horses ​is a western, it almost falls in its

own category of the genre, keeping the timeless grace of typical westerns but adding in

complexities to actually shape a meaningful story.