All the Pretty Horses Pd. 3 Connector Paula Ferrara
LAST POST!!!!!!!
Honestly, this was the hardest part of the story to connect to real life. Thankfully, after talking to my sister who works on an army base, I have decided to connect this last part of the book to an anxiety disorder associated with soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.
PTSD occurs after someone undergoes extreme traumatic stress and causes psycohlogical and sometimes physical damage. In the case of sodiers returning from war, they have gone through being shot at or being wounded, they’ve witnessed people dying around them, and they have possibly killed people themselves. When they return home, back to a “normal life”, little things that used to seem trivial can remind them of those moments when they’re own traumatic stress was at its peak. This can make them feel alienated from their friends and family, make them want to be alone most of their time, and depending on the magnitude of their disorder, can make them suicidal.
To me, John Grady has some form of PTSD. He’s gone through the same traumatic events as sodiers; he’s witnessed murders, been wounded, killed someone else, and he’s gone through the emotional pain of losing Alejandra. He also tells the judge that he’s being tormented by the fact that he killed the assassin in the jail where he and Rawlins were held. Finally, after being home for a while and talking to Rawlins, he realizes that he can’t stay in San Angelo anymore; he feels alienated and leaves alone on horseback, not sure himself of where he’s going.
What is going to happen to John Grady now? Is he going to go the way of some soldiers, become suicidal and all that? Or will he somehow find peace during his time alone? Do you think he will ever find his true home and gain the happiness his life once had? Feel free to throw in your own ideas!!
Category: Per 3 WotW Con 3 comments »
April 19th, 2009 at 9:26 am
There is no way for us to know what will happen to John Grady anymore. He is leaving his old life behind once again for the unknown. However, if there is one thing we have learned about him it is that he is an incredibly strong person, mentally and physically. I definitely do not thing that he will let depression or the memories of what he’s done get to him too much. But i do think that perhaps his experiences and his losses will prevent him from connecting to other people again. He was never very good at connecting with his father, and now he and Alejandra are both lost to him. That, along with the way he is tormented by killing the assassin, will probably make the rest of his life very hard, but he will make it.
-Ditz
April 19th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
I truely can’t answer the question of where John Grady is going to go. He feels he doesn’t belong in Texas and he isn’t going to go back to Mexico after all he endured there. he feels like an outsider when he is with Rawlins because he has no family to go back to.
As to the question of what he will do now I don’t think that he will go suicidal or anything. I think he will just become a hermit or something in the desert.
I don’t think that John Grady will ever find his true home. He feels that there is nowhere for him to go that he will be happy. The only way for him to be happy is for him to be with Alejandra.
-Kody
April 19th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
I don’t think that McCarthy intended John Grady to go suicidal, it just doesn’t fit. I think he just needs his alone time so that he can think things over, regain all of his strength back, and then return. He is just so overwhelmed with emotions that he cannot e around the ones that he loves the most.
I don’t believe that John Grady will ever return to the way he felt when he was with Alejandra, I mean would you ever be as happy? I wouldn’t, but that is me. I do think that John Grady will be happy, but not as happy.
-Abbey