Esplorazione del confine tra adolescenza e maturità nella Border Trilogy

"Border Trilogy" is a trilogy written by author Cormac McCarthy. It consists of three books: "All the Pretty Horses", "The Crossing" and "Cities of the Plain".

Temi principali e ambientazione

The main theme of the trilogy is certainly the crossing of that "shadow line" that separates adolescence from maturity in Radian terms.

The story is set in the immediate postwar period (1949), but it seems to be set in a nineteenth-century epic of western myths, where large spaces and infinite silences reign.

Protagonisti e trama

The protagonist is the young John Grady Cole, who runs away from a world he no longer feels his own and, to pursue a dream, goes to Mexico where he comes into contact with love and death. John has to give up his love for the beautiful Alejandra and must suffer the absurd death of those around him. As in any self-respecting western, the hero remains alone to ride in the setting sun, but perhaps our John Grady is still looking for a world that no longer exists. Truly splendid and also the other two novels in the trilogy, the aforementioned "Beyond the border" and the other "City of the plain" are very beautiful.

Universo manicheo di McCarthy

McCarthy's universe is decidedly Manichean: Good and Evil are always at stake, without nuances and without ambiguity. John and Billy were not born to be champions of Good, but they are forced to become so for not wanting to accept the compromise of tolerating Evil. McCarthy chooses to place Evil geographically in Mexico, but it is clear that there is no chauvinistic intent in him, as Mexico is, even before being a geographical place, a symbolic entity