The book All the Pretty Horses is about a sixteen year old cowboy named John Grady. After his grandfathers death his mom decides she no longer wants to run the ranch or have any part of it. Since Grady is upset by this he talks to his friend about wanting to leave and starting all over. He convinces his friend on leaving with him and they both leave and cross the border into Mexico. Before crossing over into Mexico Grady and Rawlins meet a young boy by the name of Blevins. Once theyre in Mexico their troubles begin. They meet Don Hector Rocha and are asked to work on his ranch working with the horses till Grady becomes romantically involved with his daughter, Alejandra. Don Hector then has him arrested and him and Rawlins are sent to jail and they fight for their lives every day that they are there. Finally they are released and they end up going back to the United States.
John Grady is a sixteen year old boy who wants to keep running his grandfathers ranch after his death. Since his mother doesnt want to he decides on starting a new life in Mexico. He is somewhat of an intelligent guy who knows how to speak Spanish. Hes the main character and pretty much the leader. I cant exactly picture his description, but my guess would be how he looked in the movie. Rawlins is John Gradys best friend. He accompanies John on their voyage to Mexico. He is a very strong opinioned person and very brave too. His role in the book is kind of like Johns other conscious or voice of reason. Don Hector Rocha is a Mexican ranch owner who takes in Grady and Blevins, and gives them work on his ranch. His role in the book is not one of the most important but his actions towards Grady are what make the book more interesting. He is a stern man and very traditional. Alejandra is Don Hectors seventeen year old daughter. She becomes interested John Grady and later on in the book becomes his love interest and end up being intimate with each other. She is part of a very traditional rich Mexican family and has a lot to uphold.
All of the rising action is basically the whole book up until John goes after Alejandra and tries to stop her from going away. John Grady wants to start a new life so he and his friend decide theyre going to leave San Angelo, Texas and go to Mexico. Once they are there they have some problems because of a kid that tags along with them on the way to Mexico. After a while Grady meets Don Hector Rocha and finds work with him there. Don Hector lets Grady work with the horses since he sees hes good with them. While working with the horses Grady meets Hectors daughter, Alejandra. Instantly he is captivated and cant forget about her. They begin to talk a few times and eventually become lovers and become intimate with each other. After Alejandras father finds out he sends Grady and Rawlings to jail for the stealing of a horse that they didnt even take. While theyre in jail they fight everyday to stay alive and Rawlins comes very close to becoming dead. They are let out because Alejandras aunt pays their fine to let them out. Grady goes back to the ranch and talks with the aunt and finds out that Alejandra is to away to further her studies.
The Climax is when John Grady stops Alejandra from getting on the train and asks her if she would leave with him back to Texas. They spend a day and a night together while she tries to think about her decision and almost even considers leaving with him. Then she remembers that shes lost any honor she had and that if she disobeyed her father she wouldnt have anything left. Her word would mean nothing. The next day Alejandra gets on the train and forgets about John Grady and keeps going with her life.
The resolution is when John decides he wants to get back all the horses that had come with him across the border to Mexico and return them back to their rightful owners. He goes back and pays a visit to the man in charge of jailing people and gets him to release the horses they took from him. He has a hard travel back to the U.S and even becomes arrested by American policeman. Grady eventually is set free and returns all the horses to their owners.
There are a couple times when self-interest vs. friendship/loyalty is present throughout the book. Take for example when Blevins is with John Grady and Rawlins. A man asks Grady who Blevins is and asks him if he wants to sell him the boy. Grady feeling he has a loyalty to Blevins now doesnt sell him and keeps avoiding any other question the man asks. The man in the vest studied John Grady and he looked across the clearing at Blevins. Then he asked John Grady if he wished to sell the boy. He didnt answer for a moment. The man may have thought he was weighing the matter. They waited. He looked up. No, he said. (pg.76)
There is a big part in the book where there is tradition vs. loyalty. Take Alejandra for example, she is facing her familys way of life, her traditional Mexican life, and loyalty to John Grady. Her family sees many things that they dont approve of with Alejandra. Even though you are younger than she it is not proper for you to be seen riding in the campo together without supervision. (pg.136) This wasnt the only thing that Alejandra faced. She was to leave to La Purisima in two days and Grady was going to meet her n try to convince her to leave with him. But she couldnt do that to her father especially after she told him everything that happened between her n Grady. She had disappointed her father greatly. I didnt know that he would stop loving me. I didnt know he could. Now I know.(pg.252)
The traditional way of life was coming to an end and the times were changing. One of the things that most people used to be very traditional on was keeping a young woman a virgin. Sadly this has changed a lot and well young girls now seem to be getting pregnant and having to become mothers. Alejandra is a young woman who has a high reputation to uphold. She is someone who rebels against her traditional way of life and is more towards the changing times. John Grady and Alejandra become intimate and so Alejandra is no longer a virgin. This was really bad for a young girl from Mexico to do because in Mexico this was something that was highly frowned upon in the early years. Alejandras aunt says, This is another country. Here a womans reputation is all she has.(pg.136)
There were many coming of age problems for both male and female characters in the book. As I said in the last paragraph a womans reputation is all a woman had. Her virginity was worth a lot. This was a one of the problems Alejandra faced. Also she faced with whether or not to be loyal to her family. John Grady faced his share of problems also. He had to choose if he should be loyal to his friends or to his feelings. He also faced problems for covering up for Blevins. Grady almost faced the death penalty for Blevins, but Blevins ends up dying and paying for his crime.
All The Pretty Horses refers to all the horses that Grady ends up with at the end and he returns to their rightful owners. The whole story revolved around something happening because of a horse being involved. Grady meets Don Hector because he sees how well Grady works with horses. Grady and Rawlins end up going to jail because they are accused of stealing a horse. At the very end of the movie Grady almost goes back to jail when he gets back to the U.S.A. because of the horses he has with him. All the horses symbolize a sense of freedom and beauty.
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