I Have More Friends In Heaven Than I Do Here Death plays an important role throughout Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses. The death of people is not the only factor. The main character, John Grady Cole also experiences the death of his own respect and his childhood. The book opens with the death of John Grady's grandfather. The next death is the killing a man by Blevins, which puts John Grady and Rawlins in jail. This causes the death of John Grady's respect and good reputation. Finally the book closes with the death of Abuela. One death just leads to another and they build on each other. We see the gradual development of John Grady especially concerning his views on life and death change throughout the book as a result of his premature exposure to violence and death.
The first death is a major turning point in John Grady's life because it is the death of his grandfather that brings him back to the ranch.
English: Kelvin Grady shoots a jump shot for the M...
English: Combined syringe and aspirator with stopc...
John Grady Love (1899-1978)From here he makes his decision not to go back to school but instead to go to Mexico and live on his own. It seems that death has a way of bringing people together. John Grady spoke to his mother and father for the last time when he was at the ranch. The grandfather was the only thing left holding the ranch together and once he died the decision was made to sell the ranch, which was very dear to both John Grady and his grandfather. With the death of his grandfather came the death of the family name, Grady.
At this point death is a natural thing to John Grady, his grandfather was old and it was his time. Everything was formal about the funeral, for one, they actually had a...