John Grady ColeLacey RawlinsDon HectorJimmy BlevinsAlejandraAll the Pretty Horses/Characters
Lacey Rawlins is John Grady Cole's best friend and his companion on the trip into Mexico. We know little about Rawlins physically, just that at age seventeen he is tall and thin, with long arms.
Alejandra is the novel's resident hot chick. She's the object of John Grady's affections in the novel, and is the daughter of hacendado Don Héctor Rocha y Villareal. In terms of status, she's not the Juliet to John Grady's Romeo.
Three horses in All the Pretty Horses are significant enough that they can almost be thought of as characters themselves: John Grady's horse Redbo, Rawlins' horse Junior, and Blevins' nameless big bay horse. Each has its own character—John Grady's is powerful and loyal, while Blevins' is jumpier and more finicky.
seventeen-year-oldJohn Grady's childhood friend, a seventeen-year-old who grew up on a neighboring ranch.
The novel tells of John Grady Cole, a 16-year-old who grew up on his grandfather's ranch in San Angelo, Texas. The boy was raised for a significant part of his youth, perhaps 15 of his 16 years, by a family of Mexican origin who worked on the ranch; he is a native speaker of Spanish and English.
She commands him to let her ride the stallion, and he is forced to accede. As he brings her horse back to the barn, however, he is seen by a shadowy someone from the ranch house. Soon afterward the Duena Alfonsa, Alejandra's aunt, calls John Grady for an audience at the ranch house.
Recently divorced from his father, John Grady's mother seems to care little about ranch life in San Angelo. She had run away to California years ago, though his father tells John Grady that she returned for his sake. Still, she seems more concerned with social life than with mothering, and is often absent.
17-year-oldAlejandra The beautiful, dark-haired, 17-year-old daughter of the hacienda owner in Mexico. She rides a stylish black Arab horse English-style and speaks schoolbook English. She splits her time between Mexico City, where her mother lives, and La Purisima, her father's ranch.