The most vivid character in Cormac McCarthy's, "All the Pretty Horses," is the landscape itself. Discuss the novel so far in light of this statement.
Response.
There is not much which can be considered tangible in Cormac McCarthy's novel, "All the Pretty Horses." The novel toys between reality and fantasy, casting a dream-like veil over the characters. However, the incredible landscapes, described in such detail, are without a doubt real and they transport the reader to the vivid setting of Mexico and the Deep South. The novel toys endlessly with the concept of dreams being reflections of reality. In the opening line McCarthy describes "the candle flame" and the image of the candle flame" This is echoed a few pages later when McCarthy describes the Comanche as "nation and ghost of nation." This perception of reality is a fundamental theme in the novel. The novel itself is a contrast between Grady's imagined ideals of being a cowboy and the reality which he discovers. .
The reason that the novel seems so surreal is due to the third/first person perspective it takes. John Grady Cole is a quiet teenager with romantic ideas. His silence, especially around the loquacious Rawlins and Blevins, actually makes him seem distant from the happenings of the novel. Although extremely pensive, Grady seems emotionless. He registers no emotion either when he goes to see his mother acting in San Antonio or when talking to his ex-girlfriend. We have no notion of what he looks like. This mystery helps us to enter his mind and the story. We feel that he is almost as much of a spectator as we are. Despite the fact that we are viewing the story through his eyes, Grady's lack of emotion and distance makes it difficult to relate to him as a character. .
The girl, Alejandra, wholly encapsulates this mystical nature of the characters. Grady is completely entranced by her and the descriptions of her reflect this. McCarthy uses incredibly powerful, extremely visual images of the girl, the most striking being when she is riding away from Grady: "her black hair twisted and blew about her shoulders and the lightning fell silently through the black clouds behind her.
