Can you tell me if my tone is too casual? I find it easier to get my point acros in my unique style. As a result, I sometimes sound too casual. Here's nearly half of my essay (note, I am did not include other half):
In All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, the story takes place during the time when the old tradition is being replaced by the more modern lifestyle. Facing the growth of urbanization, the life of a cowboy was becoming more and more difficult to live. Because of this, people either accept the new lifestyle or try to remain in the old one. However, there are some that cannot fit into these two cultures, and are left in a world of turmoil and confusion. In the story, McCarthy tries to teach us that there are situations in which we cannot control, in which we cannot avoid, and in which we should not blame ourselves. Using the cultural and authorial symbols, the unique settings, and the characterization of the significant people, the author sets up an example by telling us the difficult things that the protagonists had experienced in a journey between the dangerous Mexican-American borders.
The story begins with the description of the settings surrounding the main character, John Grady Cole. He lives in a ranch at the isolated town of San Angelo. The setting, which includes the creaking floorboard, the open prairie, and the bawling calf, suggests that he lives his life as a cowboy. His holding his hat as he enters his house signifies the fact that John Grady likes to live in and are used to this lifestyle. However, things in which he has no control over begin to happen to him. At the beginning of this book, it has been stated that his grandfather, who is “the primogenitor from whom John Grady’s conception of the world has come†(Blair 301), has passed away. Since John Grady has always looked up to him as a role model of the Classical Western lifestyle, this is significant because it represents the fact that modernization is becoming more prevalent. This is further supported by the "the ticking of the mantel clock in the front room" (McCarthy 3). Time is perishing for the ideals of both John Grady and his late grandfather.
The main character, now feeling that he has no control over his life at home, has then decided to move to Mexico. To him, “it [Mexico] is an old place, a dangerous place… a place where a young man can test his own resolves and therefore the appropriateness of his definition of himself†(301). Along with his friend, Rawlins, he has hoped that the new country would provide something in which he likes and are in agreement with. But he is to be greatly disappointed. Using the authorial symbols, the writer has shown that Mexico is no different than America or anywhere else in the world; Mexico also contains the same things that John has no control over. This is demonstrated when, not far into the Mexican border line, the two travelers meet with Jimmy Blevins. Jimmy is a mysterious person, for he does not tell them his real name or the place where he has gotten his pistol and his very precious horse. Soon afterward, there is a storm, in which “the small birds had been driven by the storm and there impaled†(McCarthy73). Because of all of this, but especially because of Blevins, Rawlins stated directly and explicitly to John that “Somethin bad is goin to happen†(77). All of these things - the storm, the dead birds, the introduction of Blevins, and Rawlins’ blunt statement -foreshadow the difficulties that were to come up in their journey through Mexico.
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