All the pretty horses

            McCarthy incorporates numerous themes including success, failure, fatality, and the fear that goes hand in hand with all of these, into his novel. In All the Pretty Horses, these themes help create a personal connection for the reader, one that is easily related to. For me, the theme in this novel that I could closely relate with was fear: that insane impulse that drives you to the limit, scares you toward insanity, and messes with your head. But what is it? What is fear? Fear is a feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger. The fear that the characters possessed in the novel impacted the entire story, and without it, each of their lives would have been severely altered. Their fear not only caused them to live their lives hiding from it, but it also pushed them to do insane things. .
             John Grady Cole is the protagonist who fears failing at the one thing that is most important to him in life: becoming a cowboy. With seemingly less significance, Jimmy Blevins fears lightning. Although it is possible to assume that Blevins's fear isn't as deep or important as Cole's, this preconception, by the end of the book, is proven incorrect. We learn that Blevins" fear possesses both literal and figurative significance. It drives him into places that possibly could have otherwise been avoided, yet it also brings him closer to his friends. .
             At sixteen years old, John Grady Cole finds his life quickly and suddenly worsening. After the death of his grandfather, he discovers that he is without the future he had always envisioned of running his own ranch. His grandfather had epitomized all of his dreams of a cowboy and of his future life. Never had he doubted that one day he was to inherit the ranch and would become the true cowboy that he dreamed of being. He hoped to be a solid rancher with a couple hundred cattle and hundreds of acres of his own to ride through, much like his grandfather in his day.