Pretty Horses: A Pastoral PauseAP Literature and Composition, Mr. Thomas

Lynden Christian School • Fall 2010

Discussion ScheduleTimeline for All the Pretty Horses Discussion

CHAPTERS AND BOOKS

Discussion 1 (Structures and Designs)

The Pastoral Novel

Historical Considerations:

Texas Ethos: Santa Ana and the Alamo Modernism Encroaching

Death of the Cowboy

Setting and Place:

Texas - America’s Soul

Mexico - The Wilderness

Key Question: (3 - C’s): Where do archetypes play a role in McCarthy’s story? (Mythological Analysis)

Discussion 2 (Characters and Conflicts)

The Voyage and Return: Finding Virtue

The Hero - John Grady Cole and the Modern Struggle (Araby, James Joyce)

The Maiden - Alejandra and the Archetypal Woman (An Ancient Gesture, St. Millay)

The Helper - Who plays the Fool? (The Drunkard, Frank O’Conner)

The Villain - Who is the Monster? (Desperado, The Eagles)

Key Question: (3-C’s): Where do power-structures arise in All the Pretty Horses? (Social Analysis)

Discussion 3 (Devices and Deceptions)

Name That Novel

Bildungsroman

Epic Novel

Picaresque

Pastoral

Key Question: What forms/structures does McCarthy employ in his novel? (Form Analysis)

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Mr. Thomas • email: jthomas@lyncs.org • Lynden Christian School 2

The Pastoral NovelSelections for Study: Form/Structure Analysis

DISCUSSION 1: STRUCTURES AND DESIGNS

Assumptions Exercises

Picture #1 Picture #2

O - Overview

P - Parts

T - Title

I - Interconnections

C - Conclusions

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Mr. Thomas • email: jthomas@lyncs.org • Lynden Christian School 3

Picture #1 Picture #2

Details Details

Impressions Impressions

Conclusions Conclusions

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OCI Response

To simplify, remember that fiction is character and conflict. In order for a novel to work, though, the writer and reader must hold mutual assumptions about characterization and conflicts (for example: what is good behavior? what is bad behavior?) The pictures you have just examined are the pictorial contrasts of the novel. Using the pictures, then, think about your assumptions and outline a response to the prompt using the sections below: “What assumptions do you hold that allow McCarthy to tell you his story, and what device does he use to engage you as a reader?”

Observations (what: scene from story)

Considerations (how: consequences, possibilities within the story)

Interpretations (why: author’s intentions, impact on reader)

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Mr. Thomas • email: jthomas@lyncs.org • Lynden Christian School 5

Reading Excerpt #1

The Border Town

(Excerpted from Dr. Olivia Codaval) The Mexican and U. S. governments settled the location of the border with the signing of the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty in 1848 and the Gadsden Purchase in 1853. But long before there was a border, Indian communities had settlements in the areas between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. In the seventeenth century, Spanish settlers established the same area as the northern frontier of New Spain and then of Mexico after its War of Independence in 1810. In the Spanish colonial period, this area was a frontier that attracted the most adventuresome explorers and dedicated missionaries. The eastern region of the border along the Rio Bravo (later called Rio Grande in the United States) was more hospitable and became a focus of regional life as towns grew up along its banks. As Dr. Ceballos points out, residents of these towns like Laredo felt a strong allegiance to a Mexican identity. El Paso del Norte, now known as El Paso, was the first and largest town built on the river in the early 1600s in the mountain corridor that was called "El Paso del Norte," the "Passage to the North." Many small towns established before the creation of the border still dot the Texas Valley. The Rio Grande/Rio Bravo, a "symbol of separation" in Texas, constitutes more than half the length of the border. In the decades following the Mexican-American War (1850s), U.S. cattle barons and agricultural opportunists from the East and Midwest with substantial capital and extensive mercantile connections came to dominate U.S.-Mexican trade across this Texas river border. Shortly after their rise, these merchants began to acquire extensive tracts of land in Texas and to assert dominion over the earlier Spanish and Mexican settlers. This created an environment of cultural and economic conflict that characterizes the border to this day. During the Mexican Revolution, which began in 1910, the border population increased significantly as many moved across the border seeking refuge. Migration patterns were established between particular states in Mexico and particular regions or towns on the border. For example, refugees from central Mexico who settled in the Texas valley were likely to be joined later by immigrants from their hometowns. Migrants from the northwestern states of Zacatecas, Durango, and Sinaloa regularly traveled to Ciudad Juarez/EI Paso. When economic recessions hit the United States, efforts mounted to push immigrants back to Mexico. In 1914-15, the U.S. side of the Rio Grande Valley experienced a winter of violence when hundreds of Mexicans, or "Mexicanos" in border usage, were persecuted and killed by the Texas border patrols. The Great Depression of the 1930s brought a new wave of deportations in which immigrants who had lived undisturbed in the U.S. for decades were repatriated. As people from different cultural regions of Mexico have settled on the border, they have evolved a complexly layered cultural and social environment that has been created by competition and adaptation for survival. In this struggle, border peoples have developed distinctive styles, social organizations, and local economies. An interesting example of this is the way Mixteco vendors in Tijuana appropriate the traditional and tourist handicrafts made by other Mexican migrants to create a market that helps to support not only their own cultural identity but also that of the other groups. Local economies that develop on the Mexican side capitalize not only on available skills but also on available, usually discarded, materials. Small businesses trade in secondhand clothes purchased by the pound and cardboard from the United States. Some items, like the used tires found everywhere along the border, are made into distinctive items that support local economies and define a border style. The extensive use of tires is evidence of economic difference and marginality and of the cultural inventiveness and resilience that exploits the border environment. But the visible presence of discarded materials is also a reminder of the pollution that is unfortunately also prevalent on the border. The poorly regulated industrialization, including that of agriculture, on both sides of the border increasingly contaminates the air, water, and land. While border residents can creatively reuse discarded tires, the unchecked and growing regional pollution, which seriously affects their health as well as the environment, is at present beyond their control.

Inductions

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Mr. Thomas • email: jthomas@lyncs.org • Lynden Christian School 6

Reading Excerpt #2

Santa Ana/The Alamo/Bandito/Texas

Antonio López de Santa Anna(1794-1876)

The dominant figure in Mexican politics for much of the 19th century, Antonio López de Santa Anna left a legacy of disappointment and disaster by consistently placing his own self-interest above his duty to the nation.Born in the state of Vera Cruz in 1794, Santa Anna embarked on his long career in the army at age 16 as a cadet. He fought for a time for the Spanish against Mexican independence, but along with many other army officers switched sides in 1821 to help install Augustin de Iturbide as head of state of an independent Mexico. Mexico was a highly fractured and chaotic nation for much of its first century of independence, in no small part due to the machinations of men such as Santa Anna. In 1828 he used his military influence to lift the losing candidate into the presidency, being rewarded in turn with appointment as the highest-ranking general in the land. His reputation and influence were further strengthened by his critical role in defeating an 1829 Spanish effort to reconquer their former colony. In 1833 Santa Anna was overwhelmingly elected President of Mexico. Unfortunately, what began as a promise to unite the nation soon deteriorated into chaos. From 1833 to 1855 Mexico had no fewer than thirty-six changes in presidency; Santa Anna himself directly ruled eleven times. He soon became bored in his first presidency, leaving the real work to his vice-president, who soon launched an ambitious reform of church, state and army. In 1835, when the proposed reforms infuriated vested interests in the army and church, Santa Anna seized the opportunity to reassert his authority, and led a military coup against his own government. Santa Anna's repudiation of Mexico's 1824 constitution and substitution of a much more centralized and less democratic form of government was instrumental in sparking the Texas revolution, for it ultimately convinced both Anglo colonists and many Mexicans in Texas that they had nothing to gain by remaining under the Mexican government. When the revolution came in 1835, Santa Anna personally led the Mexican counter-attack, enforcing a "take-no-prisoners" policy at the Alamo and ordering the execution of those captured at Goliad. In the end, however, his over-confidence and tactical carelessness allowed Sam Houston to win a crushing victory at the battle of San Jacinto. Although his failure to suppress the Texas revolution enormously discredited him, Santa Anna was able to reestablish much of his authority when he defeated a French invasion force at Vera Cruz in 1838. His personal heroism in battle, which resulted in having several horses shot out from under him and the loss of half of his left leg, became the basis of his subsequent effort to secure his power by creating a cult of personality around himself. In 1842 he arranged for an elaborate ceremony to dig up the remains of his leg, parade with it through Mexico City, and place it on a prominent monument for all to see. The United States took advantage of Mexico's continuing internal turmoil in the Mexican-American war. As the supreme commander of Mexican forces, much of the blame for their crushing defeat fell on Santa Anna's shoulders. Nevertheless, he remained the most powerful individual in Mexico until 1853, when his sale of millions of acres in what is now southern Arizona and New Mexico to the United States united liberal opposition against him. He was soon deposed, and never again returned to political office. He died in 1876.

Inductions

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Mr. Thomas • email: jthomas@lyncs.org • Lynden Christian School 7

The Alamo(Excerpted retelling of Capt. RM Potter, 1860)

The chapel, which was the last point taken, was carried by a "coup de main" after the fire of the other buildings was silenced. Once the enemy in possession of the large area, the guns of the south could be turned to fire into the door of the church, only from fifty to a hundred yards off, and that was probably the route of attack. The inmates of this last stronghold, like the rest, fought to the last, and continued to fire down from the upper works after the enemy occupied the floor. A Mexican officer told of seeing one of his soldiers shot in the crown of the head during this melee. Towards the close of the struggle Lieutenant Dickenson, with his child in his arms, or, as some accounts say, tied to his back, leaped from the east embrasure of the chapel, and both were shot in the act. Of those he left behind him, the bayonet soon gleaned what the bullet had left; and in the upper part of that edifice the last defender must have fallen. The morning breeze which received his parting breath probably still fanned his flag above that fabric, for I doubt not he fell ere it was pulled down by the victors. The Alamo had fallen; but the impression it left on the invader was the forerunner of San Jacinto. It is a fact not often remembered that Travis and his band fell under the Mexican Federal flag of 1824, instead of the Lone Star of Texas, although Independence, unknown to them, had been declared by the new Convention four days before at Washington, on the Brazos. They died for a Republic of whose existence they never knew. The action, according to Santa Ana's report, lasted thirty minutes. It was certainly short, and possibly no longer time passed between the moment the enemy entered the breach and that when resistance died out. The assault was a task which had to be carried out quickly or fail. Some of the incidents which have to be related separately occurred simultaneously, and all occupied very little time. ` . The stranger will naturally inquire where lie the heroes of the Alamo, and Texas can reply only by a silent blush. A few hours after the action the bodies of the slaughtered garrison were gathered by the victors, laid in three heaps, mingled with fuel and burned, though their own dead were interred. On the 25th of February, 1837, the bones and ashes of the defenders were, by order of General Houston, collected, as well as could then be done, for burial by Colonel Seguin, then in command at San Antonio. The bones were placed in a large coffin, which, together with the gathered ashes, was interred with military honors. The place of burial was a peach orchard, then outside of the Alamo village and a few hundred yards from the fort. When I was last there, in 1861, it was still a large enclosed open lot, though surrounded by the suburb which had there grown up; but the rude landmarks which had once pointed out the place of sepulture had long since disappeared. Diligent search might then have found it, but it is now densely built over, and its identity is irrecoverably lost. In the 2d of March, 1836, the delegates of the people of Texas in general convention at Washington on the Brazos declared their independence of Mexico. Their Declaration of Independence may be read in the appendix to Kennedy's History of Texas, vol. ii., and elsewhere. On the same day General Samuel Houston, the Texan commander-in-chief, issued a proclamation announcing that war was waging on the frontier, and Bexar besieged by 2,000 of the enemy, while the garrison was only 150 strong. "The citizens of Texas must rally to the aid of our army, or it will perish. Independence is declared: it must be maintained. Immediate action, united with valor, alone can achieve the great work." But the immediate action was too late. Already Santa Ana and his forces were closing in around the fated little band in the Alamo at San Antonio; and between midnight and dawn on the morning of March 6 came the terrible assault described in the leaflet, from which not one of the 180 Texans escaped alive, although before the last man died 500 of their assailants had fallen. No fiercer or more heroic fight was ever seen in America or in the world. The Texan force was under the command of William Barrett Travis, whose last letter, to the president of the convention at Washington, dated March 3, is given in Kennedy, vol. ii., p. 184. Its last words were: "The bearer of this will give your honorable body a statement more in detail, should he escape through the enemies' lines. God and Texas! Victory or Death!" On the capitol grounds at Austin, Tex., stands a monument to the heroes of the Alamo, erected in 1891, with the inscription: "Thermopylae had her messenger of defeat: the Alamo had none.

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Mr. Thomas • email: jthomas@lyncs.org • Lynden Christian School 8

El Bandito, Vasquez (Excerpt from Cecile Page Vargo)

Somewhere between the ages of 13 and 15, young Tiburcio Vasquez found himself in trouble with the law. Perhaps it started at the dance where he defended his beautiful sister when Americanos in attendance insulted her. Vasquez reportedly stabbed the offender and fled, possibly joining up with Joaquin Murietta and his band of men. A year or so later, he was accused of murdering a local lawman at another Fandango, and stealing a horse, as well. Tiburcio Vasquez, who came into the world in 1839, was the well-educated son of a respected Monterey family. Now he was a man with a price on his head. Along with a group of followers with a common grudge against the Americans who had taken their beloved California from them, Vasquez would hold a reign of terror up and down the state for over 20 years. Vasquez haunted Northern California with a series of robberies and horse thefts which eventually landed

him in San Quentin Prison sometime during the 1850’s. By 1863 he was hustling as a gambler, but apparently wound up in prison once again. Upon his release from another sentence in the 1870’s he was well on his way to becoming famous for his crimes.

A Bandito is Made In August of 1873, the entire band of desperados, with Vasquez in the lead, raided Snyder’s General Store at Tres Pinos, in Monterey County , killing three men, including Snyder himself. From there they escaped to Elizabeth Lake in Southern California , with a posse trailing behind them from Northern California and one from Los Angeles headed towards them. Comfortable and familiar with mountaintop country, the men headed through what is today known as Vasquez Rocks and on to Little Rock Creek. As they camped near the present day site of Little Rock Reservoir dam, officers at last overtook them and shots were exchanged, but no one from either party was harmed. In fear of being ambushed on unfamiliar ground, the posse retreated to Elizabeth Lake once again. There they realized that Vasquez had arrived ahead of them and had turned back to Little Rock Creek, somehow managing to pass them on the way. From there, more than likely, Vasquez headed to a hideout deep in the San Gabriel Mountains known as Chilao. After several weeks of seclusion, Vasquez and his lieutenant, Cleovaro Chavez began recruiting more men, which they would send out in small groups of twos and threes for holdups and stock rustlings. Late fall of 1873, Vasquez and Chavez were headed north once again, to the town of Kingston, on the Kings River in Fresno County. With a dozen or more men working under them, they tied up thirty-five citizens and proceeded to plunder the entire town. By January 1874, California legislature authorized fifteen thousand dollars for Vasquez capture; three thousand dollars of which would be awarded for his head. Every sheriff from San Jose to Bakersfield was now hot on his trail. Meantime, the band scattered to various areas, while both Vasquez and Chavez spent time with family and friends back at Lake Elizabeth and in San Fernando Valley . Occasionally they would continue to hold small-scale robberies and rustle more stock.

Raid at Coyote Holes The silver bullion trail that led from Los Angeles up to Owens Valley and the mines appeared to be a promising target for Vasquez as February 1874 came to an end. With Chavez at his side, they rode into Coyote Holes near the road that led to Walker Pass , shooting their rifles into the station building to announce their presence. The station-keepers wife, Mrs. Billy Raymond, was startled to find that the infamous Tiburcio Vasquez was standing at her door. Everyone was ordered out of the station and relieved of their weapons and valuables by Vasquez, as Chavez stood guard with a Henry rifle. Vasquez fired off more shots, and several more men appeared from the stage stable. As they were ordered to sit down so they could be searched, one visibly drunk man pulled out his revolver and badly aimed at

Inductions

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Mr. Thomas • email: jthomas@lyncs.org • Lynden Christian School 9

the bandit. The return shot from Vasquez went through the drunk’s thigh. He was reminded by Vasquez that had he chosen too, Vasquez could have easily killed him. All residents of Coyote Holes, minus the one wounded man, were ordered behind the house tied up and left in the sagebrush, while Vasquez and Chavez hid in the stagehouse to await the next arrivals.

He Needed Gloves Following a two hour wait, with one bandit keeping a watchful eye on the men in the sagebrush, and the other watching the road from Walker Pass , a Concord was finally seen kicking up dust as it drove in from Havilah. Beside the driver sat the silver bullion king from the mines at Cerro Gordo , Mortimer Belshaw. As the driver approached the bandits, he prepared to make a run for Indian Wells. Vasquez ordered them to halt, and Belshaw advised the driver to follow his orders. As the stage screeched to a stop Vasquez ordered all passengers out. Two travelers climbed out and squatted in the road beside Mortimer Belshaw. Chavez’s rifle muzzle was on them as Vasquez went through their pockets coming up with 5 dollars in coin and ten thousand dollars in mining stock from one man alone. As Vasquez demanded the same man’s new pair of gloves, the man started to give trouble, insisting that in the cold February weather he needed to keep his hands warm. Surprisingly, Vasquez handed the man two dollars from the 5 he had stolen from him in return for the gloves. Meanwhile, the other traveler had managed to hide his watch in his overshoe but was forced to turn over 40 dollars in gold coins, as well as a spyglass. Mortimer Belshaw, himself, handed over a silver watch, a meager 20 dollars in gold coins, and a pair of boots. A much dismayed Vasquez warned him that he had better not be caught traveling the same road again without a thousand dollars on him, or it would be his death. The bandits then began searching the Wells Fargo treasure box, finding only a set of law books. As the Concord stage passengers were ordered to a spot on the hillside, the jingle bells of two north bound Cerro Gordo freight teams were heard. The mule skinners were robbed of their coins and ordered to join the rest of the group in the sagebrush. Vasquez warned the sixteen victims one last time before mounting his palomino and taking off with Chavez, and eight stolen stage horses. The mining stock they had stolen was scattered to the winds. Four of the stolen horses were released as the robbers bound off behind the rocks overlooking the Coyote Holes Station.

Disappearing in the Dust As the dust of the bandits horses settled and it appeared safe, Mortimer Belshaw appropriated four tired mules from the freight wagons and hitched them to the Concord so he could head north to Owens Valley .and spread the news of the robbery. Others began searching the desert brush for the scattered mining stock certificates. Station keeper Billy Raymond was discovered tied in the sagebrush where he had been intercepted by the bandits before they got to Coyote Holes Station. The prominent rocks to the south, we now know as Robber’s Roost, hid the remains of Vasquez’s campfire. Two days later, Vasquez and Chavez stopped the Los Angeles/Havilah stagecoach approximately two miles south of what is now Ravenna Station. Here they tied up the passengers, and rode off with three hundred dollars worth of loot, as they headed into the town of Soledad . In Soledad they stole a wagon and six horses from the livery stable, then ran across another Cerro Gordo freight team and robbed them, as well. They would hide in the Soledad Hills, perhaps visiting with Chico Vasquez, Tiburcio’s brother, who had a home there. This time would also be used to rally an army of 200 banditos, and raise funds for more arms and equipment before they would take off and plunder and terrorize Los Angeles and points further south.

Inductions

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Mr. Thomas • email: jthomas@lyncs.org • Lynden Christian School 10

TexasHistorical Analysis

Every story has an origin. Above you see a slogan that embodies the spirit of Texas you would find on t-shirts, bumper stickers, and billboards around the state of Texas. Look closely at the slogan: think about it, write in the margins some of your first impressions. Then, below, outline an argument you might make about how/where this slogan comes from.

Deductive Response

Topic Sentence - Thesis

Inductive Insights

Deductive Insights

Interpretation

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Mr. Thomas • email: jthomas@lyncs.org • Lynden Christian School 11

Finding VirtueA Social Examination

DISCUSSION 2: CHARACTERS AND CONFLICTS

Social Analysis examines the power structure within a work. A famous literary critic named Michel Foucault argued that all relationship is power and, as critics of literature, the reader has a responsibility to examine the nature of power between the characters. At it’s simplest, the goes back to our main dictum related to literature: “Fiction is character and conflict.” Conflict is the vying for power which Foucault simply calls Government:

“Power . . . does not exist {in itself}. Power exists only when it is put into action. {It} is not a renunciation of freedom, a transference of rights, the power of each and all delegated to a few. A power relationship can only be articulated on the basis of two elements which are each indispensable if it is really to be a power relationship: that 'the other' (the one over whom power is exercised) be thoroughly recognized and maintained to the very end as a person who acts; and that, faced with a relationship of power, a whole field of responses, reactions, results, and possible inventions may open up. {It} is always a way of acting upon an acting subject or acting subjects by virtue of their acting or being capable of action"

Basically power is less a confrontation between two adversaries . . . than a question of government. This word must be allowed the very broad meaning which it had in the sixteenth century. "Government" did not refer only to political structures or to the management of states; rather it designated the way in which the conduct of individuals or of groups might be directed: the government of children, of souls, of communities, of families, of the sick. It did not only cover the legitimately constituted forms of political or economic subjection, but also modes of action, more or less considered and calculated, which were destined to act upon the possibilities of action of other people. To govern, in this sense, is to structure the possible field of action of others. The relationship proper to power would not therefore be sought on the side of violence or of struggle, nor on that of voluntary linking (all of which can, at best, only be the instruments of power), but rather in the area of the singular mode of action, neither warlike nor juridical, which is government.

Who’s Got the Power

Translate

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Mr. Thomas • email: jthomas@lyncs.org • Lynden Christian School 12

McCarthy writes in a minimalist fashion, meaning he does not use tricks and spectacle to tell his story; he will spend two pages explaining a moment/scene and the moment (not the action) without using summary. As part of this strategy, he uses the archetypal journey to develop an otherwise benign/faceless hero in John Grady Cole. As a result, his encounters with other characters shape his development. Below, you should gather the details about each character so that you can draw some conclusions about the power-structures of the novel, and how the interconnections reveal the archetypal role each of the characters play.

Character Events/Roles (One Word)

Power

John Grady Cole

* ****

Alejandra

*****

Grandma

*****

Mexico

*****

Rawlins

*****

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Mr. Thomas • email: jthomas@lyncs.org • Lynden Christian School 13

Textual Criticism Textual, or Form criticism, studies the technical aspects (literary devices,sentence structures, plot lines) of a novel to reach a conclusion about the author’s intent. The New Critics (1920s-1930s) claimed that the only truth found in a novel would be found in its structure. An author’s background, an historical backdrop, a political agenda, they said, was secondary to the words and their meanings. The words and forms authors use, the New Critics say, create Unity (a great AP Word), meaning the devices that make the novel tie together. McCarthy does this using parallelism -- two separate, comparable events happening simultaneously or two events happening at two different events in a story.

New Criticism proposed that a work of literary art should be regarded as autonomous, and so should not be judged by reference to considerations beyond itself. A poem consists less of a series of referential and verifiable statements about the 'real' world beyond it, than of the presentation and sophisticated organization of a set of complex experiences in a verbal form (Hawkes, pp. 150-151). Key Terms:

Intentional Fallacy - equating the meaning of a poem with the author's intentions.

Affective Fallacy - confusing the meaning of a text with how it makes the reader feel. A reader's emotional response to a text generally does not produce a reliable interpretation.

Heresy of Paraphrase - assuming that an interpretation of a literary work could consist of a detailed summary or paraphrase.

Close reading (from Bressler - see General Resources below) - "a close and detailed analysis of the text itself to arrive at an interpretation without referring to historical, authorial, or cultural concerns" (263).

Below is an exercise designed to explore the formal methods McCarthy uses to enrich his story. After reading Part IV of Pretty Horses, examine and discuss the connections between the beginning and end of the novel. You need not read every word; brainstorm with your group and draw three conclusions you can share with the class; these conclusions must deal with the concept of unity -- they are summary statements that solidify your understanding of structures/form.

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Mr. Thomas • email: jthomas@lyncs.org • Lynden Christian School 14

John Grady’s journey, which follows the pattern of the hero’s journey, includes a return to the point from which he originally departed. When John Grady returns to San Angelo in Part IV, there are a number of moments that directly parallel or mirror events from Part I of the novel, listed in the first column below. Look carefully at the last part of All the Pretty Horses and then list in the second column the event that most directly mirrors the event listed in the first column. Remember to include page numbers.

Part I Part IV

John Grady attends his grandfather’s funeral (4)

John Grady imagines Comanches riding down the trail as he rides (5)

“He rode with the sun coppering his face” (5)

“He stood like a man come to the end of something” (5)

“What he loved in horses he loved in men…” (5).

Meets with his father who tells him to forgive his mother (12)

Father shares incredulity about religion, specifically the idea that the meek would inherit the earth (13)

Grandfather calls horses in painting “picturebook horses” (17)

Meets with a lawyer to see if he can obtain the ranch (17)

Goes to watch his mother perform in a play to try and understand her rejection (21)

“The last thing his father said was that the country would never be the same” (25)

Father gets divorced from John Grady’s mother

Curt goodbye to Mary Catherine (28)

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Mr. Thomas • email: jthomas@lyncs.org • Lynden Christian School 15

Blevins lies story about his past

Boys discuss Jimmy Blevins, the radio evangelist (44)

Boys cross Rio Grande naked

Rawlins shoots a spikehorn buck (90)

Theses

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Mr. Thomas • email: jthomas@lyncs.org • Lynden Christian School 16

Name that NovelThe Importance of Time and Place in Literature

DISCUSSION #3: DEVICES AND DECEPTIONS

A Study in Literary Maneuvers:

Below are different definitions of literary genres that apply to the novel All The Pretty Horses. In contemporary novels, authors tend to be less “prescriptive” and more “descriptive” in their approach to literary forms: meaning, they don’t follow specifically follow a classical model (prescriptive), but they take elements of the classical forms and re-invent them.

In this section of the study guide, you will be digging into some of those classical forms, reading sections of the novel Horses, and coming up with elements that McCarthy uses. This is an excellent exercise to familiarize yourself with techniques and terms you may not yet be familiar with, but will no doubt encounter as you read in preparation for the AP Exam.

Introduction to the Bildungsroman The term Bildungsroman denotes a novel of all-around self-development. Used generally, it encompasses a few similar genres: the Entwicklungsroman, a story of general growth rather than self-culture; the Erziehungsroman, which focuses on training and formal education; and the Kunstlerroman, about the development of an artist. (The Space Between, 13) Although Great Expectations, Aurora Leigh, and Waterland may fit one of these more specific categories, for the purposes of comparison, I shall discuss the Bildungsroman genre as a whole and how it applies to all three. My definition of Bildungsroman is a distilled version of the one offered by Marianne Hirsch in "The Novel of Formation as Genre":

i. A Bildungsroman is, most generally, the story of a single individual's growth and development within the context of a defined social order. The growth process, at its roots a quest story, has been described as both "an apprenticeship to life" and a "search for meaningful existence within society."

ii. To spur the hero or heroine on to their journey, some form of loss or discontent must jar them at an early stage away from the home or family setting.

iii. The process of maturity is long, arduous, and gradual, consisting of repeated clashes between the protagonist's needs and desires and the views and judgments enforced by an unbending social order.

iv. Eventually, the spirit and values of the social order become manifest in the protagonist, who is then accommodated into society. The novel ends with an assessment by the protagonist of himself and his new place in that society.

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Mr. Thomas • email: jthomas@lyncs.org • Lynden Christian School 17

Introduction to the Epic Novel The first epics were products of preliterate societies and oral poetic traditions. In these traditions, poetry is transmitted to the audience and from performer to performer by purely oral means.

Early twentieth-century study of living oral epic traditions in the Balkans by Milman Parry and Albert Lord demonstrated the paratactic model used for composing these poems. What they demonstrated was that oral epics tend to be constructed in short episodes, each of equal status, interest and importance. This facilitates memorization, as the poet is recalling each episode in turn and using the completed episodes to recreate the entire epic as he performs it.

Parry and Lord also showed that the most likely source for written texts of the epics of Homer was dictation from an oral performance.

Epic: a long narrative poem in elevated stature presenting characters of high position in adventures forming an organic whole through their relation to a central heroic figure and through their development of episodes important to the history of a nation or race.

Epics have nine main characteristics:

1) Starts in medias res2) The setting is vast, covering many nations, the world or the universe. 3) Begins with an invocation to a muse.4) Starts with a statement of the theme.5) The use of epithets.6) Includes long lists.7) Features long and formal speeches.8) shows divine intervention on human affairs.9) "Star" heroes that embody the values of the civilization.

The hero generally participates in a cyclical journey or quest, faces adversaries that try to defeat him in his journey and returns home significantly transformed by his journey. The epic hero illustrates traits, performs deeds, and exemplifies certain morals that are valued by the society from which the epic originates. Many epic heroes are recurring characters in the legends of their native culture

Introduction to the Picaresque Novel  A chronicle, usually autobiographical, presenting the life story of a rascal of low degree engaged in menial tasks and making his living more through his wits than his industry.  The picaresque novel tends to be episodic and structureless.  The picaro, or central figure, through various pranks and predicaments and by his associations with people of varying degree, affords the author an opportunity for satire of the social classes.  Romantic in the sense of being an adventure story, the picaresque novel nevertheless is strongly marked by realism in petty detail and by uninhibited expression. Seven chief qualities distinguish the picaresque novel. 

1) It chronicles a part or the whole of the life of a rogue.  It is likely to be in the first person. 

2) The chief figure is drawn from a low social level, is of loose character, and, if employed at all, does menial work. 

3) The novel presents a series of episodes only slightly connected.  Progress and development of character do not take place. 

4) The central figure starts as a picaro and ends as a picaro, manifesting the same qualities throughout.  When change occurs, as it sometimes does, it is external, brought about by the picaro's falling heir to a fortune or by marrying money. 

5) The method is realistic.  Although the story may be romantic in itself, it is presented with a plainness of language and a vividness of detail such as only the realist is permitted. 

6) Thrown with people from every class and often from different parts of the world, the picaro serves them intimately in some lowly capacity and learns all their foibles and frailties.  The picaresque novel may in this way be made to satirize social castes, national types, or racial peculiarities. 

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7) The hero usually stops just short of being an actual criminal.  The line between crime and petty rascality is hazy, but somehow the picaro always manages to draw it.  Carefree, amoral perhaps, the picaro avoids actual crime and turns from one peccadillo to disappear down the road in search of another

Introduction to the Pastoral Novel In literature, the adjective 'pastoral' refers to rural subjects and aspects of life in the countryside among shepherds, cowherds and other farm workers that are often romanticized and depicted in a highly unrealistic manner. Indeed, the pastoral life is sometimes depicted as being far closer to the Golden age than the rest of human life. An intriguing example of the use of the genre is the short poem Robene and Makyne which also contains the conflicted emotions often present in the genre. A more tranquil mood is set by Christopher Marlowe's well known lines from The Passionate Shepherd to His Love:

Come live with me and be my Love,And we will all the pleasures proveThat hills and valleys, dale and field,And all the craggy mountains yield.There will we sit upon the rocksAnd see the shepherds feed their flocks,By shallow rivers, to whose fallsMelodious birds sing madrigals.

Pastoral shepherds and maidens usually have Greek names like Corydon or Philomela, reflecting the origin of the pastoral genre. Pastoral poems are set in beautiful rural landscapes, the literary term for which is "locus amoenus" (Latin for "beautiful place"), such as Arcadia, a rural region of Greece, mythological home of the god Pan, which was portrayed as a sort of Eden by the poets. The tasks of their employment with sheep and other rustic chores is held in the fantasy to be almost wholly undemanding and is left in the background, abandoning the shepherdesses and their swains in a state of almost perfect leisure. This makes them available for embodying perpetual erotic fantasies. The shepherds spend their time chasing pretty girls — or, at least in the Greek and Roman versions, pretty lads as well.

Dialectical Journals

As a group, then, examine the attached dialectical journals, read the accompanying passages from the novel All The Pretty

Horses, and write FOUR theses (conclusions) that will help shape your study of the novel. Your theses should be statements about the

novel using the literary elements (connections) you have discovered. As you read, keep in mind some of the elements from the definitions

above. In the connection section, make note of what kind literary elements help McCarthy tell his story.

Chapter/Page Summary Connection

Innocence21-22

Key Passage

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Chapter/Page Summary Connection

The Dark Shadow

24-26

(Ending: “Don’t even know what color they’ll be”)

Key Passage

Water/Initiation(44-46)

Starting: “They waited”Ending: “scrublands of Coahuila”

Key Passage

The Helper(26-27)

Key Passage

The Wilderness(61-67)

Starting: “John Grady got up. . .”Ending: “Iron dark of the world.”

Key Passage

The Great Escape263-266

Starting: “He called his horse . . .”Ending: “Esta loco”

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Chapter/Page Summary Connection

Key Passage

Self-Knowledge298-301

Starting: “He never found the owner of the horse . . .”

Key Passage

The Return281-287

Starting: “He rode all day”Ending: “ . . . and they both looked”

Key Passage

Theses

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For the sake of terminology, you should know that this study is the third major criticism style you will study, Mythological

Criticism, that looks at representation. A Mythological Critic, or Archetypalist, believes everything within a novel is representative of a basic

human emotion:

These critics view the genres and individual plot patterns of literature, including highly sophisticated and realistic works, as recurrences of certain archetypes and essential mythic formulae. Archetypes, according to Jung, are "primordial images"; the "psychic residue" of repeated types of experience in the lives of very ancient ancestors which are inherited in the "collective unconscious" of the human race and are expressed in myths, religion, dreams, and private fantasies, as well as in the works of literature (Abrams, p. 10, 112). Some common examples of archetypes include water, sun, moon, colors, circles, the Great Mother, Wise Old Man, etc. In terms of archetypal criticism, the color white might be associated with innocence or could signify death or the supernatural. Key Terms:

• Anima - feminine aspect - the inner feminine part of the male personality or a man's image of a woman.

• Animus - male aspect - an inner masculine part of the female personality or a woman's image of a man.

• Archetype - (from Makaryk - see General Resources below) - "a typical or recurring image, character, narrative design, theme, or other literary phenomenon that has been in literature from the beginning and regularly reappears" (508). Note - Frye sees archetypes as recurring patterns in literature; in contrast, Jung views archetypes as primal, ancient images/experience that we have inherited.

• Collective Unconscious - "a set of primal memories common to the human race, existing below each person's conscious mind" (Jung)

• Persona - the image we present to the world

• Shadow - darker, sometimes hidden (deliberately or unconsciously), elements of a person's psych

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Reflective Paper AP will often ask you to make connections between literary works because they want to see your ability to make critical connections. You can do this through comparison-contrast, but you must always do so with explicit textual connections. Therefore, using the Deductive Response Model, connect the ideas in the following portion of a poem by T.S. Eliot to the ideas suggested by the parallel structure in All the Pretty Horses.

Overview Connections

“Little Gidding” Part V by T.S. Eliot

What we call the beginning is often the endAnd to make and end is to make a beginning.The end is where we start from. And every phraseAnd sentence that is right (where every word is at home,Taking its place to support the others,The word neither diffident nor ostentatious,An easy commerce of the old and the new,The common word exact without vulgarity,The formal word precise but not pedantic,The complete consort dancing together)Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,Every poem an epitaph. And any actionIs a step to the block, to the fire, down the sea's throatOr to an illegible stone: and that is where we start.We die with the dying:See, they depart, and we go with them.We are born with the dead:See, they return, and bring us with them.The moment of the rose and the moment of the yew-treeAre of equal duration. A people without historyIs not redeemed from time, for history is a patternOf timeless moments. So, while the light failsOn a winter's afternoon, in a secluded chapelHistory is now and England.

With the drawing of this Love and the voice of thisCalling

We shall not cease from explorationAnd the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we startedAnd know the place for the first time.Through the unknown, unremembered gateWhen the last of earth left to discoverIs that which was the beginning;At the source of the longest riverThe voice of the hidden waterfallAnd the children in the apple-treeNot known, because not looked forBut heard, half-heard, in the stillnessBetween two waves of the sea.Quick now, here, now, always—A condition of complete simplicity(Costing not less than everything)And all shall be well andAll manner of thing shall be wellWhen the tongues of flame are in-foldedInto the crowned knot of fireAnd the fire and the rose are one.

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Connection to Novel:• Think Socially• Think Psychologically• Think Mythologically

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