All The Pretty Horses

Rawlins is John Grady’s best friend and character foil: He’s a realist whereas John Grady is an idealist; he’s willing to interrogate his friend’s motivations; and he is able to undercut John Grady’s seriousness with an easygoing sarcasm that shows deep affection. He takes a matter-of-fact view of life and is eager to speak truth to power using his sense of humor, particularly to men who abuse their authority like the captain. He’s also extremely loyal; several times in the novel, the boys discuss whether or not Rawlins is going to leave John Grady, but Rawlins’s resolve to support his friend never wavers, even when they disagree.

Rawlins’s relationship with Blevins is complex, as he vehemently claims to want nothing to do with Blevins throughout Part 1, but he still cares for Blevins. When Rawlins realizes that Blevins will be executed, his reaction is a mix of anger at Blevins and outrage that the world would treat him that way. Though Rawlins is better able to understand how the cultural context for his and John Grady’s actions has shifted, and better able to recognize the dangers of John Grady’s altruism, he still mirrors some of John Grady’s need to believe in the inherent goodness of the world.

Also like John Grady, Rawlins has a deep love of horses and incredible skill with them, though he’s willing to admit he’s not the leader of their group or the most skilled. As the novel progresses, he repeatedly gives John Grady counsel that is ignored: It’s his opinion that they should leave Blevins to his own devices, for example, and he cautions John Grady about his affair with Alejandra and how it might be perceived. However, that does not extend to blaming his friend when exactly what he feared comes true. Instead, he doubles down on seeing the situation through to the end together. It’s only after the two are released from prison that this changes, and John Grady is ultimately the one who decides it’s time for Rawlins to go home.

At the end of the novel, Rawlins is back home and seems to have reclaimed a relatively optimistic outlook on his future—his worldview isn’t as badly shaken as John Grady’s, because he always had a more complete understanding of what kind of world they were in. 

Blevins enters the novel with nearly absurd humor: He’s riding a likely stolen horse, he’s eager to tell exaggerated stories about himself and lie about his age, and mishaps seem to follow him wherever he goes. Even his name, Jimmy Blevins, is adopted from a dubious radio evangelist, suggesting an outspoken fraudulence about every aspect of his character. Behind the bluster is a wounded young boy who has run away before and has experienced abuse, which leads John Grady and Rawlins to see him as someone who needs looking after.

When Blevins is left naked after the storm, his fragility and need affect John Grady, who wants to care for him even more; soon after, when men offer to buy Blevins so they can enslave him, John Grady realizes how precarious the younger boy’s position is in Mexico, though Blevins retains his bravado.

Blevins’s pride and impulsiveness end up having disastrous consequences for the trio, and when the boys encounter him again, he’s been beaten horribly after killing at least two men. The truth of the matter is never established, as Blevins claims self-defense, but there’s a parallel drawn between Blevins and John Grady: They both believe that doing what they determine is right supersedes social custom or the law of the land. It’s a naive view, and it’s another reminder that the characters are working with a teenage understanding of the world. The world they’re in is one ruled by adults, and Blevins’s execution is a tragic rebuttal of his worldview, and a violent caution to Rawlins and John Grady of the danger they are in.

Alejandra is a beautiful young woman approaching adulthood, and she and John Grady have a magnetic attraction rooted in their mutual fascination with horses. She’s also headstrong and confident, willing to take what she wants and assert herself into a situation. Notably, she is the driving force behind the relationship with John Grady, as she always comes to him and initiates the next step in their relationship.

She’s also headstrong, which drives her to pursue the forbidden relationship—in many ways, the affair she has is an act of rebellion against her father’s power and expectations of her behavior. Her desire for self-determination motivates her to confess to the affair to keep Dueña Alfonsa from having any power over her. More than anything, she doesn’t want to be controlled, but the consequences prove too great: Her father’s love is revealed to be conditional (or at least not as powerful as his anger) after she reveals what he views as her disgrace.

In the end, Alejandra realizes that she must submit to familial and societal expectations to ensure her own safety and maintain her advantageous social position. In this way, she differs from John Grady, who doesn’t have a reputation to lose or a family whose protection he needs. Alejandra navigates their relationship with self-possession and pragmatism, whereas John Grady cannot appreciate that their love exists within the context of the larger and more complicated world.

Don Héctor is a rich and powerful man who expects respect from the people beneath him, which is the key conflict between him and John Grady. The two share a worldview and expertise about horses and the value of ranching, but Don Héctor still wants subservience from his mentee, even as their mutual respect for each other grows. He’s also deeply skeptical about the effects of the outside world on Mexican culture, which is made clear in his desire to keep Alejandra from going to school in Europe, as he believes that it will fill her with dangerous ideas and make her ill-suited to life in Mexico. Underneath that desire is a more pernicious problem: His expectation of her obedience. In one sense, he knows that this is a losing battle, saying “Why do I bother myself? Eh? She will go. Who am I? A father. A father is nothing” (146).

At the same time, some boundaries cannot be crossed in his reckoning, and the affair between John Grady and Alejandra is one of them. John Grady has betrayed his trust, and Alejandra has revealed herself to be a grown woman with desires that he cannot control. This drives him to a murderous anger and causes him to treat Alejandra coldly. Underneath the benign patriarch with dreams of creating excellent horses is someone more like the captain or Pérez: a man who demands respect and will inflict cruelty to get it.