Note #1

All The Pretty Horses-Country Life

Cormac McCarthy's, in his famous novel All The Pretty Horses, strays away from the typical style Western. McCarthy's uses long and prolix passages to describe the beauty of the Mexican countryside as if the country is the only thing that exists. His passages of the countryside exude senses of calm beauty and a cool formality, almost placing nature and the boundless mountains and prairies on a pedestal- putting to shame the common conveniences of towns and cities. As the main characters ride into Mexico for the first time they notice that "the sun to the west lay blood red among the shelving clouds" while "the terminals of the sky to fade from pale to pale blue." His romantic description their surroundings is a testament to his aberration of the typical western, centered around action and movement. His highly stylized description of the mountains and ranges lead the characters to be filled with a sense of boundless imagination as they ponder and try to think of all that they could do in this new land. Rawlins, one of the main characters, says "where do you reckon that paradise is at?"  These boys are cattle ranchers by heart, and entering this lands fills them with immense gaiety bliss; these boys are in a state of beatitude.He sees this beautiful land around him and thinks that its paradise and his friend, John Grady, agrees. McCarthy's very stylized and poetic diction allows for an effect like none other, as he describes the surroundings, each description flowing along with the rolling hills of the land. Even the wildlife is depicted in great detail, as "a hawk set forth below them and circled in the deepening haze." The sense of limitless comes to mind as these boys keep on riding through the country, and as the country descriptions become deeper and more thoughtful. McCarthy puts much more emphasis on nature, a theme of Romantic writers, than on action, although there is some good action in the novel. This becomes one of McCarthy's central themes as he provides contrast between the country and towns by his short abrupt descriptions of towns and cities in contras tohis long prolix passages about the country. His stylized diction allows the words to flow and roll like the mountains and allows the animals, like the hawk, to become real and tangible.