All the Pretty Horses Lesson Plan

The horses had grouped again at the far end of the pen and stood rolling their eyes and running their heads along each other’s necks.

They got one thing goin for em, said Rawlins.

What’s that.

They aint had no Mexican to try and break em (99).

What does Rawlins mean when he says what he says here? Consider the social implications of his comment. Why do you think McCarthy included this detail?

Rawlins means that the horses are better off having not been first broken by Mexicans. The implication is that the Mexican vaqueros would do a worse job than American cowboys, or at least these two specific American cowboys. Ideally, students will note that inherent in Rawlins...