All The Pretty Horses

Part 2 of the book sees the boys finding the dream that they set out for—a place where ranching life still matters—only to see it come crashing down as their mistakes catch up to them and John Grady’s romance with Alejandra bears terrible consequences. There are three key narrative threads in this part of the novel: John Grady’s immersion into the culture of La Purísima under the tutelage of Don Héctor; John Grady’s whirlwind romance with Alejandra; and Dueña Alfonsa’s hidden power on the ranch.

In Don Héctor, John Grady finds a kindred spirit much like his grandfather: he is a man who understands The Spiritual Significance of Horses to ranching life and reveres the animals both as the cornerstone of his empire and as something more nebulous and personal—he is proud of his expertise and has a reverence for the world of horse knowledge. John Grady and Rawlins’s skill with the animals gets Don Héctor’s attention, but it’s their initial conversation, in which John Grady reveals his deep, specific knowledge of horses by knowing the names of individual animals and their owners, that truly wins him over: “I will show you some horses,” Don Héctor says, demonstrating his deep desire to share what he knows as a mentor to the boy (117). Their shared spiritual connection to horsemanship—and respect for the animals themselves—indicates, to them, shared values rooted in the ranching way of life.

This sets up a conflict in John Grady between his desire to please his employer and mentor and his personal desires. As the two develop respect for one another, John Grady begins to take liberty with his station, first by riding the stallion, then by taking more notice of Alejandra than is culturally appropriate. Don Héctor has given John Grady permission to ride the stallion—which Antonio refers to as caballo padre (horse father)—but John Grady invests the act with meaning and power. It’s a symbolic act of supplanting Don Héctor’s power with his own, but it also sets him up to better ingratiate himself with Alejandra, who is also a skilled rider. There’s a more direct ulterior motive to him riding the horse: “In truth he loved for her to see him riding it” (127).

Alejandra’s motivations are not made fully clear in this section; beyond her sexual desire for John Grady and her desire to rebel against the repressive gender norms that she feels she must adhere to (and as enforced by Dueña Alfonsa), she remains opaque. This is partly because McCarthy often writes of her with an elevated, poetic style and partly because she is always portrayed as specifically observed by John Grady. McCarthy makes careful use of narrative blanks (moments deliberately left out of the text) to obscure instances where she invites John Grady to the dance or expresses her overt interest in him. Though she has her own agency as a character and drives every step of the relationship, she’s trapped in a man’s world; even John Grady’s reverence for her is a limiting factor rather than a freeing one, and the structure of the novel reinforces this idea.

The patriarchal culture is reinforced by Dueña Alfonsa, who warns John Grady but works in the background to keep Alejandra in line; her actions during this time are revealed in Part 4 of the novel. She makes it clear what’s at stake for Alejandra to John Grady if their relationship becomes public knowledge, and though she agrees that it’s not right, what’s more important is that “It is a matter of who must say […]” (137). For the Mexican characters throughout the novel, it’s never a matter of right or wrong, it’s a matter of strength in a world that’s ready to do cruelty to weakness or dishonor. Dueña Alfonsa knows all too well The Tragic Consequences of Flaunting Cultural Mores due to her firsthand experience with the Madero family and how it strained her relationship with her own father. She empathizes with the couple but can only see them as naïve.

While John Grady is focused on his ranching career and relationship, other developments are going on in the background that make sense of the boys’ sudden arrest: Don Héctor has been approached by the police about their possible involvement with Blevins, Alejandra is blackmailed by Dueña Alfonsa and chooses to confess rather than let her great aunt have power over her, and Don Héctor follows John Grady and Rawlins into the mountains intent on murder before hesitating (indicated by the boys seeing his hunting dogs). Without knowing it, the boys have entered a world where their actions have more serious consequences than they know, and their intentions don’t matter if the result angers those in power.