The Multiplicity of the Themes in Cormac McCarthy’s novel All the Pretty Horses

The Theme Of Love. Cormac McCarthy represents the theme of love through the relations of his main character John Grady Cole and a young beautiful girl Alejandra. Sometimes it seems that the author wanted to show the same story as William Shakespeare showed in his Romeo and Juliet. The young man John who was only 16 met a beautiful young girl Alejandra, the daughter of Rocha, at La Purisima hacienda where he and his friend Rawlins came to work as cowboys. The first time he saw her riding on a black Arabian horse and fell in love with her.
She also fell in love with this young man. She invited him and his friend to the party where she danced with John. John found her hands tender and “small” and her waist nice and “slight”. In spite of warnings of Donna Alfonsa who protected Alejandra the young man and the young girl started to have rides at night time together, they went swimming at the lake together. They became lovers. She came to his room every night for a period of nine nights and they were happy to make love. However, then she returned to Mexico. John wanted to be with her and he went to Mexico City and found her there. However, Alejandra had changed. She said that she was afraid of her father who wanted to kill John. She decided to say no to John, and for the last time they made love in the hotel and then parted never to meet again.
The Theme of Family Relations. Cormac McCarthy showed another important theme – the theme of family relations by the example of John Grady’s family. Such family relations affected his future and his character in a way. John’s mother left him when he was a baby. A Mexican woman took care of him and became his second mother. John’s father could not pay him attention because he was away taking part in the World War II but he taught him “to love horses”. John’s grandfather did not give the boy the parenting he wanted to get. The other character of the novel is Lacey Rawlins whose family was a poor one and he decided to escape and live alone. Jimmy Blevins, a small boy who was 13 years old, did not have a family at all. These young men needed family and were unhappy. Their unfortunate family relations had great influence on their emotional and psychological state.
The Theme of Nature. The author pays special attention to nature in his novel. The beauty of nature described in the book helps him to show the characters’ attitude to the earth, horses, wonderful landscapes, lakes and rivers and reveal the best qualities of their characters. John’s relationships with horses show the close connection between nature and all the human beings. He had a long journey which changed him as a man. He experiences love and cruelty, theft and killing, prison and the system of justice. In each situation nature helped him to survive.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I should say that Cormac McCarthy’s novel All the Pretty Horses is really a great literary work which can teach us to love nature, to love our country and our family. It shows us how to fight with injustice and how to survive. I think that all the themes the author conveyed in his novel are still actual for the present day life. The author could discover human nature in his novel by the examples of main characters and their attitude to horses as a part of nature.

Works Cited
McCarthy, Cormac. The Border Trilogy. Omnibus Edition, London: Picador, 2002. Vol 1. Print.
Tatum, Stephen. Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses: A Reader’s Guide. New York: Continuum Books, 2002. Print.
Hall, Wade and Wallach, Rick. The Masaic of McCarthy’s Fiction. El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1995. Print.
Bell, Vereen. The Achievements of Cormac McCarthy. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988. Print.
Jarret, Robert J. Cormac McCarthy. New York: Twayne, 1997.Print.