All the Pretty Horses

In the coming of age novel All the Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy follows a young John Grady Cole on a journey of sorrow and triumph. He includes two funerals, one at the beginning of the novel and on at the end, to depict John Grady's evolution from a boy to a man.
In the first part of the novel McCarthy includes the setting of John Grady's grandfather's funeral to portray society and John Grady's inability to cope with death. Imagery is used to describe the funeral and the reaction of society. The vivid description of the "bits of snow in the air" and the "blowing dust" embodies the desolate emotions felt by the assemblage (4). They are so lost in their emotions that "the preacher's words [are] lost in the wind" (4). McCarthy includes these descriptions to imply the sorrow and emptiness they feel after losing a loved one. However, their grief is contradicted by John Grady's reaction to his grandfather's death. Throughout the funeral John Grady observes others, but never ...