Equestrian Symbolism
“The ancient road was shaped before him in the rose and canted light like a dream of the past where the painted horses and the riders of that lost nation came down out of the north. . .When the wind was wild in the north you could hear them, the horses and the horses’ hooves that were shod in rawhide” (McCarthy, 5). This vivid description suggests the encompassing theme of the horse in Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses. As John Grady Cole stands on a lonely desert road in his homeland of west Texas, his home falling into the hands of another, he imagines himself a warrior like the Indians-- free and wild—riding on horseback, and headed toward adventure and the fulfillment of his dreams. Although it may seem at times to be merely the background in this novel, the horse is, nevertheless, an ever-present influence in the life of the hero, John Grady Cole. The very title, All the Pretty Horses, suggests a significant involvement and connection with horses as the central theme. Though its representation is extremely complex and intricate, the portrayal of the horse seems to reflect a few subtle allusions in John Grady’s coming-of-age adventure. One primary representation of the horse is that it seems to symbolize John Grady's journey from a naive teenager to a mature man. From the very first pages of the novel, the feeling of travel and adventure permeates John Grady’s actions until he finally sets off over the Texas plains toward Mexico. The obtaining of his father’s saddle from the closet in a hotel lends to this feeling of movement, of travel.