“What he loved in horses was what he loved in men, the blood and the heat of the blood that ran them” (McCarthy 6). In the novel, All The Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy, John Grady Cole had a deep love for horses that he developed through his grandfather. After the death of his grandfather and the upcoming sale of their ranch, the only thing that John Grady Cole had left was the horses. He no longer had a reason to remain at home, so he and his friend Rawlins go on a quest into Mexico looking for freedom. Throughout the novel, McCarthy utilizes the horses as a symbol of Cole’s quest for freedom; something that both himself and society had lost over time. The novel opens with the funeral of protagonist John Grady Cole’s grandfather. Being a young teen, Cole has a hard time coping with the death of someone who was so influential in his life. In order to escape from the pain of loss, Cole decided to resort to the thing he loved most and the thing that would…show more content… Luis, who is said to have fought in the Civil War, told the boys that “...no man who has not gone to war horseback can ever truly understand the horse…” (McCarthy 111). Cole is different than most men, he understands the horses and how they think, he is able to connect to the horses better than he connects with people. With Cole’s vast knowledge about horses, he understands and agrees when Luis claims that horses have one thing that men and society have lost over time, and that is unity and communion. “...the horse shares a common soul...there was no such communion as among horses…” (McCarthy 111). Wild horses have a collective free soul and identity which is shared amongst the animals as a whole; humans lack this freedom because of the authority that is always presiding over
