Theme Of Passage In Cormac Mccarthy's All The Pretty Horses

The concept of a ‘rite of passage’ is a historical phenomenon that dates back to most, if not all, human cultures. Whether it is the vision quest of the Native Americans, or it is the acquisition of one’s driver’s license as an American, the story that is born from a rite of passage event is often a heartfelt and passionate tale from beginning till end. All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy, is no exception. At the start of the story we see John Grady Cole feeling powerless and out of control of his future. His mother is forcing him off of the ranch – a place where John Grady feels most at home – and his father is belittling him by saying, “when I come around askin you what I’m supposed to do you’ll know you’re big enough to tell me,” in reply to John Grady’s concerns about him smoking. Feeling powerless and rebellious and somewhat irrelevant, he runs away with Lacey Rawlins. From the beginning of the journey the reader can tell that John Grady has come
Although murder is probably regarded as a rite of passage for him, considering he wants to be a cowboy, he is traumatized and filled with remorse. This event made John Grady the man he always wanted to be, but at this point he realized that he never actually wanted to kill anyone. Nevertheless, John Grady illustrates the culmination of his maturity when he tried to return Blevins’ horse, and when he talks to the judge morality and mortality. At this point in the novel, the reader can safely assume that John Grady’s rite of passage is over. However anachronistic the result of his story is, he has become a man. Throughout this novel, the reader watches John Grady transform from an angsty and rebellious teenager, to a man with more battle-scars than most. This novel illustrates the coming-of-age story with very fine detail and I doubt that this theme will cease to be written