So far throughout the book, John Grady and Rawlins have been traveling through Mexico in hopes of finding cowboy work and individualism. This idea of individualism is important to the core values of the book. It is something you can find very prominent in our country today. I think in John Grady’s case it has been tough to find individualism when his whole life has been living at a ranch. He has been secluded to the same things since he was a baby. Now, that his mother has left the ranch, grandfather has died, and father is terminally ill he seeks a new life. I don’t blame him for doing what he is doing. At the time he is living in, the late 1940’s, if you had no support you were on your own, and I think John Grady is taking the correct matters into his own hands.
All The Pretty Horsesis a great representation of how life was in Western Frontier during the mid-20thCentury. You can see this by how John Grady and Rawlins act. They do whatever it takes to survive. They carry guns and have no trouble being rough and tough. If that means stealing, then they will do it. Blevins’s, a character that John Grady and Rawlins run into on their journey, is in the same boat of the other two; living on his own. It seems that in late 1940’s in the Western Frontier, if you were young and your life was falling apart then you sought a more promising life either on your own or with some company.
One reply on “ERA #2: All The Pretty Horses pg. 59-101”
I think you make some great points here regarding the search for individualism. John Grady Cole and Rawlins paint a great picture of what it was like to be a frontiersmen. They follow what seems like a moral code, and this is why they up and left America and went to Mexico. They are on a pursuit of individualism and want to continue to live the “cowboy” lifestyle but they felt that they could not find this in America as America was civilizing further.