The Theme Of Identity Creation In All The Pretty Horses

The first two volumes of Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy “All the Pretty Horses,” and “The Crossing” appear at first to differ in the typical style of extreme brutality noted in Cormac McCarthy’s previous works such as “Blood Meridian”. Despite the seemingly less violent events in the two novels “All the Pretty Horses,” and “The Crossing” actually continue with the grim, and dark style habitually used by McCarthy. Not only do the novels follow the classic style of Cormac McCarthy’s works, but they take the style to a deeper and darker level. Aside from the shared style in “All the Pretty Horses,” and “The Crossing” the two novels also have a theme in common. Identity creation is present as the main theme in “All the Pretty Horses,” and “The

One of these is the distance McCarthy establishes between the reader and the characters in the novels. Both John Grady Cole, and Billy Parham are vaguely described in the novels, and the feelings of John Grady Cole, and Billy Parham are only revealed to the reader by descriptions of how the characters construe the things around them. This gives very little insight as to what the character’s personalities are like, and what they are feeling throughout the events in “All the Pretty Horses,” and “The Crossing”. Cormac McCarthy uses the dreams of John Grady in “All the Pretty Horses” to reveal little clues to the reader of how John Grady feels (Spellman p.9) “his thoughts were of horses and of the open country and of horses. Horses still wild on the mesa who’d never seen a man afoot and who knew nothing of him or his life yet in whose souls he would come to reside forever” (McCarthy

While the characters in the two novels are completely different they are both on a journey of self-identification. John Grady and Billy Parham have already predetermined the identity that the boys themselves think is the best fit to have. The quests that John Grady and Billy Parham have set out on is one of misfortune and disastrous events such as the boys getting sent to a prison in Saltilo. While inside this prison John and Billy find themselves in constant trouble such as being stabbed, getting in fights, and John eventually having to kill his assistant as an act of self-defense. As these events continue to occur the cowboy, hero identity the boys have placed upon themselves comes to cause even more trouble. This relates back to the quest shaping the identities of the boys even though John and Billy think they know exactly who they