English vocabulary (page #, part of speech, definition of
word as it’s used in context)
Ex. Ribald (3) adjective: vulgar or
indecent, irreverent, mocking
Spanish vocabulary (page #, copy Spanish from text, then
Ex. (4) No fui yo. = It wasn’t I.
Equine Vocabulary and/or Cowboy lingo (page #, part of
speech, definition of word as it’s used in context)
Ex. Tack (4) noun: the gear used in
equipping a horse, including saddle, bridle, martingale, etc
Complete Character List (Full Name, page first introduced,
Ex. John Grady Cole (3) the
protagonist, introduced as he in the opening pages . . .
for Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses
1. What is the occasion at the outset of the book, and what does it mean to John
2. After his grandfather's funeral, John Grady Cole rides along an old trail,
dismounts at the crest of a rise, and stands "like a man come to the end of
something." [p. 5] What has John Grady come to the end of? What might the future
hold for him?
3. Why does John Grady's grandfather reflect upon primogeniture? [p. 7]
4. How would you characterize John Grady's relationship with his father? What do
their conversations consist of? [pp. 8, 9]
5. What do we know about John Grady's father? About his mother?
6. What does John talk to Mr. Franklin about? What is it John wants? Is he able
to accomplish it?
7. What does John Grady expect to find out when he watches his mother perform on
stage? In contrast, what does he learn?
8. ". . .as if were he begot by malice or mischance into some queer land where
horses never were he would have found them anyway." [p. 23] What does this mean?
What is the author trying to say about John Grady?
9. What is Goshee? Why was John's mother so important to his father while he was
10. In the first chapter, John Grady's father tells him two things he has never
told him before. [p. 25] What are they, and why does he choose this opportunity
to tell him?
11. Why do John Grady and his father study the two horsemen who pass the cafe
window? [p. 25] What does this tell you about father and son?
12. What does Rawlins mean when he says, "I could understand if you was from
Alabama you'd have ever reason in the world to run off to Texas. But if you're
already in Texas. I don't know?" [p. 27]
13. Who is Mary Catherine, and what is John Grady's relationship to her?
14. "He stood back and touched the brim of his hat and turned and went on up the
street. He didn't look back but he could see her in the windows of the Federal
Building across the street standing there and she was still standing there when
he reached the corner and stepped out of the glass forever." [p. 29] What does
McCarthy mean by this?
15. Why is Rawlins worried about his father catching him? [p. 30]
16. What does McCarthy mean by "ten thousand worlds for the choosing?" [p.30]
17. John Grady and Rawlins set out on this trip together. Who instigated it and
18. Why don't John Grady and Rawlins want to ride with the Jimmy Blevins? Why do
they think someone is hunting the horse he's riding, and why do they let him
19. When they find out Blevins can shoot, does it change their attitude toward
20. Why does Blevins abruptly leave the Mexican household? How do John Grady and
Rawlins feel about his leaving? How do you feel about it? Was it an appropriate
response to the situation?
21. What do you think of the zacateros they encounter, who are riding up into
the mountains? [pp. 61, 62] How are they dressed? What are their skills as
horsemen? What does John Grady think of them, and what does this tell you about
22. How does Blevins lose his horse, gun, and clothes? What do you think of this
scene? Is it comic or tragic?
23. Why does Rawlins want to leave Blevins? [p. 76]
24. How do John Grady and Rawlins feel when the arrive at the hacienda? Why do
they feel that way?
1. Have John Grady and Rawlins broken horses before? Do they seem
knowledgeable about it?
2. Why does John Grady talk to the horses before he rides them? Why is this
3. John Grady sets out to break all sixteen horses. Why is this important to
4. Does John Grady tell Don Hector about Blevins? Why not? Does this seem like a
5. John Grady shares with Don Hectór the belief that "other than cattle there
was no wealth proper to a man." [p. 127] Why do they believe this? What does it
say about them?
6. What does Alejandra mean when she says, "You are in trouble?" [p. 131]
7. What does McCarthy mean by "Real horse, real rider, real land and sky and yet
a dream withal?" [p. 132]
8. "Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real." [p. 135]
What does dueña Alfonsa mean by this? Do you agree with her?
9. Why is John Grady so confused by his conversation with dueña Alfonsa?
10. Compare the game of chess with the grandmother and the game of pool with the
11. What is John Grady's relationship with Alejandra? What do they have in
common, and what sets them apart?
12. What does Don Hectór mean when he says, "Beware gentle knight there is no
greater monster than reason?" [p. 146]
13. Why do the soldiers come to take John Grady and Rawlins away? Was this
14. Why do you think Rawlins will not meet John Grady's eyes as they are taken
away by the Mexican soldiers?
1. Describe the image of Blevins in jail.
2. How would you describe Blevins' code of honor? What do you think of his
leaving the house of the Mexican family after falling over backward? What about
getting his horse back and then returning for his gun? Are his actions partially
responsible for the trouble they all face?
3. Discuss John Grady's "horse dream" on pages 161-62. What does this dream mean
4. Why doesn't the captain believe Rawlins is who he says he is?
5. Why is Rawlins so angry at Blevins? Is he fair to blame Blevins for their
6. When they stop at the abandoned estancia, Blevins is nervous. Why does
Blevins give John Grady his money?
7. How do John Grady and Rawlins feel about the execution of Blevins? How do you
feel about it? Is it just?
8. "Yet the captain inhabited another space and it was a space of his own
election and outside the common world of men. A space privileged to the men of
the irreclaimable act which while it contained all lessor worlds within it
contained no access to them. For the terms of election were of a piece with its
office and once chosen that world could not be quit." [p. 179] What does
McCarthy mean by this?
9. What does the captain mean when he tells them to "make arrangements?" What
does he expect of John Grady and Rawlins?
10. How would you describe the prison in Saltillo?
11. What does John Grady mean when he says, "Horse had nothing to do with it?"
[p. 185] Do you agree?
12. How would you describe the boy John Grady has a knife fight with? What
caused it, and was there anything John Grady could have done to avoid it? How
does he feel about it afterward?
13. What does McCarthy mean when he describes the prison as "So like some site
of siege in an older time, in an older country, where the enemies were all from
without?" [pp. 208-9]
14. Who gets John Grady and Rawlins out of prison? Why?
1. Why does John Grady return to the hacienda?
2. "And after and for a long time to come he'd have reason to evoke the
recollection of those smiles and to reflect upon the good will which provoked
them for it had power to protect and to confer honor and to strengthen resolve
and it had power to heal men and to bring them to safety long after all other
resources were exhausted." [p. 219] What do you think of this passage? What does
it mean for John Grady?
3. Why do the people from the hacienda treat him so indifferently when he
4. Discuss the passage about dreams on page 225.
5. What does the aunt mean by "The societies to which I have been exposed seemed
to me largely machines for the suppression of women." [p. 230] Do you agree
about this in her case? What about your own?
6. What does Grady learn in the final confrontation with the aunt? What do you
think of the aunt in the wake of their discussion? What does John Grady think?
Why does the aunt reject John Grady's plea for Alejandra?
7. "Those whom life does not cure death will." [p. 238] What is the meaning of
8. What does John Grady discuss with the children on page 244? Why? What do the
children think of his predicament? How does the Mexican culture of the time
affect their reaction?
9. What do we learn about John Grady's capture from the grandmother? Do we
10. "He saw very clearly how all his life led only to this moment and all after
led nowhere at all." [p. 254] What does this mean for John Grady? Is this
further commentary on the role of fate in the novel?
11. "He saw a light over a doorway in the corrugated iron wall of a warehouse
where no one came and no one went. He saw a vacant field in a city in the rain
and in the field a wooden crate and he saw a dog emerge from the crate into the
slack and sallow lamplight like a carnival dog forlorn and pick its way brokenly
across the rubble of the lot to vanish without fanfare among the darkened
buildings." [p. 255] How are John Grady's feelings reflected in this paragraph?
12. Why does John Grady go to retrieve his horse? Would he have taken this
action at the beginning of the novel?
13. How does he get away from the posse?
14. Why does he take the captain with him? Is John Grady planning to kill him?
15. What happens when he is awakened by "the men of the country?" Why do they
take the captain, and what is his ultimate fate?
16. What does the wedding near the end represent? What does it mean to John
Grady? What is McCarthy implying here?
17. Why does John Grady confess to the judge?
18. What does he tell the reverend? Why?
19. The reverend says "There's a purpose for everything in this world." [p.296]
In light of this statement, discuss the reverend's philosophy.
Questions for further discussion
1. Compare and contrast John Grady, Rawlins, and Blevins. Is one of them the
leader? If so, who and why?
2. John Grady experienced a number of profoundly significant events in the
course of the novel. How do they affect him? What qualities does John Grady
develop as he matures during the course of the novel? What role does the killing
of the boy in prison play in his development?
3. Why does John Grady feel he needs to return the horse? Would he have gone to
such lengths at the beginning of the story?
4. In chapter one Rawlins tells Grady "Ever dumb thing I ever done in my life
there was a decision made before got me into it." Do John Grady and Rawlins do
any dumb things that cause them harm?
5. Dueña Alfonsa discusses two views of fate. The first, regarding the
connectedness of things, is shown in the example of a "tossed coin that was at
one time a slug in a mint and of the coiner who took that slug from the tray and
placed it in the dye in one of two ways and from whose act all else followed."
And then: "For me the world has always been more of a puppet show. But when one
looks behind the curtain and traces the strings upward he finds they terminate
in the hands of yet other puppets, themselves with their own strings which trace
upward in turn, and so on." [pp. 230-31] Discuss these two passages and the
meaning of fate in the novel.
6. Do Blevins's fate and John Grady's confrontation with the boy in prison seem
inescapable? What purpose does violence serve in the narrative?
7. What is the role of death in All the Pretty Horses? The novel opens
with the death of John Grady's father and closes with the death of Abuela. Why
do you think this is the case?
8. All the Pretty Horses is set in 1949. Why that year? Could this story
take place today? How would it be different? How does the time period affect the
9. What do you think of McCarthy's portrayal of Mexico in 1949? Do you think it
is like the Mexico of today? What role does Mexico itself play in the narrative?
10. What does the judge represent? Compare him to the captain. What does this
say about Mexican law versus that of the United States? How would a Mexican have
fared in Texas in 1949?
11. What is the nature of religious beliefs in All the Pretty Horses?
Compare and contrast the roles of the judge and the reverend. What does this say
about the respective places of religion and law within the narrative?
12. Why all the blood-red imagery? Why are the landscapes often described as
blood-red? On page five you find images of blood and the recent frontier, and
the threat of Comanche warriors still echoing in the air. What feeling is
McCarthy trying to create?
13. What role do horses play in the novel? Do they represent anything beyond
what they are?
14. The dreams in this novel are suffused with images of horses. What do the
15. Discuss the role of the landscape in the narrative.
16. How would you describe McCarthy's language? Does he use the vernacular
often? And what about the passages that are not delivered in the voice of the
17. Read Faulkner's short story "Spotted Horses" and compare the role of the
horse in this to All the Pretty Horses.