All the Pretty Horses: the Imagery of Blood

Emma Sikina

Mr. Mayo

AP Literature

11-16-15

All the Pretty Horses: the Imagery of Blood

Alejandra, life, and horses. What do all three have in common? Blood. In All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, all of John Grady Cole’s passions are paid for in blood. The violent image of blood is gruesomely displayed throughout the entire novel. It even figures as a prominent role in John Grady’s life. Blood is also utilized to tie the lives of men and horses together; this commonality is one of the main reasons John Grady idolizes horses. By revolving the novel around blood, McCarthy created a sense of helplessness for both the reader and the characters. Even though the reader may become attached to the characters, they can not overlook the obvious and foreseeable tragedy that is headed their way due to the blood imagery and violent lifestyles.

Imagery is conveyed through the utilization of the color red to describe the landscape. Red illustrates the violent world that John Grady lives in and the bloody landscape that surrounds him, both literally and figuratively. For example, at John Grady’s grandfather's funeral, the landscape is outlined as “the sun sat blood red and elliptic under the reefs of bloodred cloud before him.” (page 5) In this scene, McCarthy illustrates a vivid picture of the history between Americans and Native Americans; the bloody battle in the fight for control of the land. McCarthy later describes the ghosts of Comanche warriors who haunt the road John Grady is riding on as being “pledged in blood and redeemable in blood only.” (page 5) Specifically, the battle is decided by which group shed the most blood and can only emend the previous deaths by shedding more blood. America can no longer provide the life John Grady is searching for. As a result, he leaves Texas with his best friend, Rawlins, to Mexico. John Grady believes Mexico can fulfill his dream of owning a ranch and “breaking” horses to live the more naturally spirited life he has always longed for. To add, John Grady loves horses and is described in the quote on page six as stated “What he loved in horses was what he loved in men, the blood and the heat of the blood that ran them. All his reverence and all of his fondness and all his learnings in life were for the ardenthearted and would always be so and never be otherwise.”

To live a natural spirited life in Mexico, John Grady had to pay for love, his life, and Blevin’s horse in blood. The forbidden love between Alejandra and John Grady is demonstrated through blood during their love scene. “Drawing blood with her teeth where he held the heel of his hand against her mouth that she not cry out.” (page 142) Symbolically, when Alejandra bites on John Grady’s hand, John Grady is paying to love Alejandra in blood. Likewise, to save his life, John Grady was forced to defend himself in jail. The quote “From the red boutonniere blossoming on the left pocket of his blood workshirt there spurted a thin fan of bright arterial blood.” (page 201), describes John Grady’s actions of murdering a prisoner in order to survive, thus resulting in blood. Furthermore, John Grady pays for Blevin’s horse in blood as he tries to escape with it when “He looked down at his leg. His trousers were dark with blood and there was blood on the ground. He felt numb and strange but he felt no pain.” (page 266) John Grady is numb from the bullet because he has become accustomed to getting hurt in the past, especially from Alejandra, so he no longer feels pain.

McCarthy stylistically ends the novel with another quote filled with the color red and blood. Leaving his hometown of San