Jack Katarincic -- Western or not?

  Your essay on All the Pretty Horses makes some good points, but it stays
  rather superficial in the way it addresses what actually happens in the
  book.  For instance, you say "women are still treated as insignificant"
  overall in the novel. But that does not really do justice to the scenes
  with Alfonsa where she is portrayed as a formidable adversary to John
  Grady (look back at the scene where they are playing chess, or the 
  later scene where she is describing how the men in her life got involved
  in the Mexican uprisings.)  I think what you are reacting to is that
  Alfonsa, especially, inhabits a separate world from John Grady and they only
  have a limited set of ways they can interact with each other.  She doesn't 
  live out of doors; she doesn't seem to have the same connection to the world of
  animals; she is focused on her family's honor and Alejandra's reputation and that
  seems to be a foreign concept to John Grady because it's so much tied
  to the norms of traditional Mexican society.  The idea that women are
  "insignificant" also understates how important the relationship with
  Alejandra was to John Grady.  There I think it is the fact that he is such
  a non-verbal person that is getting in your way. 

  I think you could also have said a bit more about whether John Grady 
  fits the mould of a conventional "hero" -- "a person who is admired or
  idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities."
  Note that part of this is the way other people see the hero (the admiration
  or idealization), and part of it is the qualities of the hero him- or herself
  (courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities).  

  Also, how is John Grady's dream of going to Mexico "heroic" in those
  terms?  I don't quite understand what you are getting at there.

  Some small things (proofreading!)

  1) In the first paragraph, "Women" should not be capitalized

  2) In the second paragraph, "runaway" should be two words:  run away (a runaway
     is a person who runs away, or a thing that runs away from something)

  3) twice on page 3: "life the life of a cowboy"  Oops!

  4) on page 4: "a bull being tortures" -- I think you meant "tortured"

  
  Content:  B+

  Mechanics:  B+