Comfort In Cormac Mccarthy's All The Pretty Horses

Within Oneself Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses shows comfort is not always found in a place or in another person; sometimes comfort can be found within oneself. San Angelo, TX, where it all started to change. A boy whose only person he really grew up with had left, left him without a home as well. A new beginning awaits three young boys with different views of life, death, religion and love. But what awaits them can be a deadly comfort for the cowboys.

The seeking of comfort began since John Grady Cole's mother left his father and him from the age of “six months old till [he] was about three” , (25) his father tells John Grady. This act that the mother did left John Grady without the knowledge of knowing what that tenderness, caring,

After the John Grady and his friend find a job as cowboys at a ranch, “John Grady quickly proves himself a master horseman when, with Rawlins' (friend) help, he successfully breaks a group of sixteen horses in only three days, a remarkable feat.” (sparknotes). McCarthy creates man vs. man, making this a man “thing” that he did what he was supposed to, he ain't the type of kid to mess around. He’s the type of kid that gets the job done when needed. The owner of the ranch is named Don Hector Rocha whom has a daughter named Alejandra, who is looked after by Duena Alfonsa (Aunt). Alejandra is a girl John Grady fell in love at first sight. Though Alejandra's Aunt tells John Grady not to be with Alejandra he still seeks comfort from her, that they spend a night together and later Alejandra confesses to father (Don Hector) that they made love. Don Hector then calls the law and they take John Grady and friend (Rawlins) to a Mexican prison where they will face death face to face. A situation John Grady Cole has not come to find in his home town, TX. McCarthy uses flashback to remind the readers that John Grady and his friends (Rawlins and Blevins) a couple a few days ago. Blevins was getting his horse back from a Mexicans house. So the boys had trouble with the law already. At the prison “an assassin tries to stab him [John Grady] in the mess hall. They fight, and John Grady is seriously wounded, but at the last moment he is successful in killing his assailant. Staggering from the hall, he collapses in the prison-yard, and is taken to the infirmary by none other than Perez' bodyguard.”(sparknotes). McCarthy uses man vs. man to show the readers that the prisoners are violent and kill just for the fun of it. Giving John Grady a view of comfort that the prisoners have that killing for them is their comfort, creating a dramatic