All the Pretty Horses begins with a desire for escape, its most dramatic action is spurred by the head-on collision with the customs of a foreign land, and it ends with the sense that its hero ultimately belongs nowhere, wandering the backwater towns and deserts of civilization. Many things are strange to the novel's protagonist, who seems in many ways simpler and more direct than the schemers, the self-indulgent, and the broader social structures around him. To follow John Grady on his lonely journey is to walk alongside a throwback as he is thwarted by both modernization and tradition during the mid-20th century.
Questions About Exile
- Why might John Grady feel like he no longer belongs at the end of the novel?
- How do the examples of community in the novel contrast with what John experiences?
- In what ways do John and company fit in with Mexican culture in the novel? In what ways do they not?
Chew on This
John Grady is doomed to isolation. People who cling to outmoded traditions will eventually find that they do not belong.
No matter how isolated John gets, there are still key moments of communal redemption, such as the acknowledgment John receives from the farm laborers on the truck up out of Saltillo.