All The Pretty Horses Journey Essay

In All the Pretty Horses, McCarthy uses the theme of journeys to relay the message that life is not only a physical journey, but there are emotional journeys through life also. Through the theme of journeys, McCarthy demonstrates a maturing aspect of the characters. Throughout John Grady Cole’s life, he wishes to take part in his grandfather’s ranch; even after his grandfather dies, John purses this dream and tries to gain a closer connection to the ranch by dropping his mother’s name and becoming John Grady. This appears to the reader as strong persistence usually found in a young, stubborn child, who always gets what they want. Another example of John Grady’s immaturity is when he comes across challenges and responds by completely dropping
Although at first John Grady believes an important element of his life is the ranch life, he realizes there is more to life than horses and a ranch. This journey takes John Grady some time since the ranch is so close to him and his family showing the psychological journey John undergoes in the novel. Another part of John’s journey is his physical journey to Mexico, which ends up turning psychological as he finds a new person inside himself; John Grady’s new destiny, however, makes him become an ill-behaved man when he is imprisoned and has to kill a man in prison because he attacks John. Although this incident on John’s journey is not part of his original dream, it does interrupt his new destiny showing a disturbance on John’s journey emotional journey through life. Finally, John’s dreams trend toward the end of his journey such as facing death. This dream connects all aspects of John’s journey while he looks at how far his journey takes him in his life; he is able to see how he grows and develops a better sense of maturity and now has experience along with his dreams to take him as far as he needs. In his novel, McCarthy uses dreams to drive the journeys theme, especially since dreams are what spark most