The Character Of John Grady Boyd As The Western Hero In All The Pretty Horses

Big Boots to Fill: John Grady Cole’s Evolution as the Western Hero

The allure of the mythic West has long called out to Americans longing for the freedom promised by Turner’s American frontier hypothesis. However, with American societal evolution, the already unreachable west has grown increasingly distant for those who long for open land and equilibrium with the wild. John Grady Cole’s adventure in All the Pretty Horses stems from a similarly naïve understanding of the mythic West, and his quest to find the land as the western hero stuck in a time long after the height of the western frontier. The novel shapes John Grady’s traits as a western hero to slowly match the hardship and sorrow forgotten in John Grady’s vision of the mythic West.

First, McCarthy emphasizes John Grady Cole’s firm connection to the west through his description of John Grady riding horseback. McCarthy posits that “[John Grady] sat on a horse not only as if he’d been born to it…but as if were he begot by malice or mischance into some queer land where horses never were he would have found them anyway…know[ing] that there was something missing for the world to be right” (McCarthy 23). As emphasized by the extravagant description, John Grady Cole’s entire identity revolves around his connection to horses, McCarthy’s ubiquitous symbol for the freedom of the west throughout the novel. The bold proposal that even born in a different life, John Grady would feel incomplete absent his connection with horses perpetuates the typical notion of the western hero intrinsically seeking out the mythic West, claiming the frontier not by chance, but by innate choice. Furthermore, after the loss of his family ranch, John Grady Cole exhibits the natural longing to seek our Turner’s frontier at the loss of all familial connections in Texas, a common characteristic of the western hero. After Rawlins exhibits slight hesitation for leaving Texas, John Grady asks firmly “what the hell reason

Part one allows John Grady Cole to act as the often romanticized western hero incomplete in a constrained life off the open fields without horses. Part two continues perpetuating the mythic West through John Grady Cole’s ability to demonstrate his heroic skills of horse training, as the work’s true western hero. Part three’s introduction to blatant violence with Blevins’ death finally breaks the myth of the perfect west for John Grady Cole, introducing him to the inevitability of violence accompanying the western hero. Finally, part four demonstrates John Grady Cole’s rugged individualism as the western hero, estranged from his friends and family despite trying to reconcile the old aspects of his life in Texas. John Grady Cole’s evolution ultimately demonstrates the collapse of the frontier hypothesis at large, questioning if the notion of the frontier as central to American identity can take root in a modernized America. John Grady Cole’s unfortunate experience illustrates the dangers of naïvely romanticizing violence, ruthlessness, and lawlessness through the American frontier, reminding American audiences, that those who seek an ostensibly better time, often get far worse than they ever dreamed of bargaining