| Choose one of the three following
essay topics and write a well-organized, well-supported essay.
1. Write an essay analyzing the central theme of All the Pretty Horses:
in this uncaring, cruel, and violent world, there is still great beauty.
There is no life without bloodshed. Choose a few key scenes or lines and
use them to analyze McCarthy’s development of the theme. Be sure
to use direct quotations and keep your analysis closely tied to the text.
2. Analyze McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses as a hero’s
journey. Show how the novel fits into the genre. Look at the handouts on the hero's journey and analyze how the book fits into the phases of Innocence, Initiation, Chaos, and Resolution. What has John Grady learned in the end? How has he returned as a man? Is he a hero? Use specific examples
and quotations from throughout the novel to support your analysis.
3. Analyze McCarthy’s novel based on Eliot’s poem:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Analyze the frame of the novel and how John Grady has returned to the
beginning at the end. What has he learned? How has he become a man? What
caused him to change? Use specific examples and quotations from throughout
the novel to support your analysis.
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