of a hero. The self-reliant John Grady Cole embodies old-fashioned values; his
capacity for violence is balanced by decency, kindness, and sense of responsibility
for others.
The Crossing (1994) and Cities of the Plain (1998) are the other two volumes
of the trilogy. The Crossing, which sold out its initial printing of two hundred
thousand copies within a month of its publication, mirrors the coming-of-age
theme set against the background of a changing West present in All the Pretty
Horses. It tells the story of sixteen-year-old Billy Parham’s three journeys to Mex-
ico and his parallel search for freedom and justice, ideals that are, not surprisingly
in a McCarthy novel, constantly undermined. Cities of the Plain (1998) unites the
main characters from the trilogy’s first two volumes, John Grady, now nineteen,
and Billy, who is nine years older. The novel’s title, a reference to Sodom and
Gomorrah, reflects the theme of a West gone bad. As in McCarthy’s other works,
people, animals, and place meet a dark and gloomy end. In an epilogue that takes
place fifty years later, however, he suggests the possibility of understanding and
a brief moment of hope. Although Cities of the Plains was not as well received by
critics as the first two volumes, it was nonetheless a commercial success. In the
year Cities of the Plain was published, McCarthy married his third wife, Jennifer
Winkley, with whom he has a son, John Francis McCarthy. They moved in 2001
to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he wrote No Country for Old Men (2005). The
novel retains a Western theme, but locates the drama into a modern desert setting
where a drug deal has gone wrong. The book was adapted into a motion picture of
the same name and won four Academy Awards. His next novel, The Road (2006),
a postapocalyptic narrative featuring a father seeking safety for himself and young
son, was adapted for film in 2009; it also won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction.
McCarthy has also tried his hand at writing plays. The Stonemason (1994) is
a five-act play about a family of African American masons. The Sunset Limited:
A Novel in Dramatic Form (2006) takes place in New York. He also wrote the
screenplay for The Gardener’s Son, broadcast on PBS in 1997.
Most helpful to students interested in researching Cormac McCarthy are
general guides to his life and work by Edwin T. Arnold and Dianne C. Luce, Ste-
phen Frye, Robert L. Jarrett, and James D. Lilley and Luce’s entry on McCarthy
in the Dictionary of Literary Biography (1994).
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AND RESEARCH
- John Grady’s descent into Mexico has been compared to other coming-of-age
tales, such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), by Mark Twain. Stu-
dents familiar with Twain’s novel may wish to explore its similarities to All the
Pretty Horses, and more important, its differences. Do John Grady and Huck
develop in similar ways? What qualities do the protagonists develop during
the course of the novels? What role do violence, hardship, and lack of a strong
father figure play in their development? Does John Grady’s journey mirror
Huck’s? In what ways? What are their views about the West? What part does
the physical environment and landscape play in their development as they
come of age? Students might consult Vereen Bell, who examines a similarity