All The Pretty Horses

Explore the history of the Mexican Revolution and the story of the Madero family. How does the novel’s connection to these events help ground the themes of the novel?

In what ways are John Grady, Rawlins, and Blevins unaware of the gravity of their actions, and what is the novel trying to say about the way Americans perceive the borderlands of Mexico?

Explore Alejandra’s agency throughout the novel, especially in relation to how she’s depicted in the text as an object of desire. Is the novel engaging in a shallow view of women, or is it presenting her in a way that is self-reflexively critical of the limitations society puts on women? Support your answer with evidence from the text.

How are John Grady’s beliefs about justice challenged in the novel? What does this suggest about the novel’s position on objective morality?

How does the narrative structure of the novel, in which unseen events have dramatic impacts on the lives of the protagonist that are only understood later, function thematically throughout the book?

Are John Grady’s actions a betrayal of Don Héctor? Why or why not? By what system(s) of value does McCarthy suggest this could be determined?

Explore Dueña Alfonsa’s argument about what it means to be a person of value and why she cannot be on John Grady’s side. Is it consistent? How and why has she arrived at her decision?

How does this novel fall into traditional tropes of Westerns, and how does it subvert them?