Alejandra Rocha In Faulkner's All The Pretty Horses

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In the novel All the Pretty Horses, the reader met Alejandra Rocha when she was riding her horse along the same road as the male protagonist, John Grady Cole. John Grady saw her and fell in love. Their love was doomed from the start; she was wealthy, educated, and cosmopolitan, while he was poor, uneducated, and sensitive to the ways of the world. For Alejandra, John Grady was a tool to illustrate her rebellious spirit to her family. John Grady knew that their relationship would be controversial, but he and Alejandra decided to disregard their differences in rank in order to pursue their affair.

Alejandra played the part of a major character as John Grady's love interest. Though the reader did learn more and more about her as the story developed, …show more content…

This consistency aided John Grady's coming-of-age. She was fiercely dedicated to her family, but she also strove to remain true to herself, which is why she rebelled against them. Her relationship with John Grady was started in an effort to cement her defiance towards the strict gender roles Mexican society had laid for her. She was ethical in this fidelity to herself and her family. Alejandra was defined by her actions, such as when she refused to elope with John Grady in favor of remaining dedicated to her family. She shouldn't be defined by her words because she often bragged about her rebellious spirit, but didn't back it up with action. Though Alejandra was constantly manipulated by her grand aunt, who kept her wayward actions in check, she remained dedicated to her and to her father. This allegiance to her family eventually became her weakness, as she abandoned John Grady to follow her aunt's wishes, leaving behind a man she wanted to be with in order to maintain good relations with her kin. She was also made weak by her curious spirit; her relationship with the American, John Grady, threatened her relationship with her family. Alejandra's strengths were in her passion for life, her fidelity to herself, and her intelligence. She exhibited these qualities in her love for travel and other cultures and in her tenacity of