Character Analysis Of John Grady Cole In William Faulkner's A Rose For Horses

John Grady Cole makes many decisions in the book and many of them are life changing ones, if any one of his choices had been made differently the whole book would have been drastically different. John Grady Cole is the main decision maker of the group because both Rawlins and Blevins look up to him. The first decision he makes for himself is choosing to leave his home because if he hadn’t everything that follows wouldn’t have happened but he wouldn’t have been able to follow his dream. When we finally meet Blevins, Rawlins isn’t a big fan of him from the start. Later when Blevins runs away because of the lighting Rawlins finds the opportunity to leave him behind but Grady convinces him to go look for him (page 71). If they had left him behind the book would
If that aint enough you let me know right now.” (page 80) If he had just told Blevins to let it go it would have kept Blevins alive and it would have changed his future with Rocha. One of the stupidest things Grady does is lies to Rocha about what took place before they got to his Hacienda. Rocha says to John Grady when talking about the journey “Just the two of you” to which Grady responds “Yessir. Just me and him.” (page 116) If Grady had been honest with him and told him the truth he might have been understanding and been able to help them with the situation. Since Rocha was so wealthy he could have persuaded the Captain to let them go. Grady lying also breaks the trust and respect that Rocha has for him and Rawlins when he finds out what really happened. It also doesn’t help the situation that Grady is secretly sleeping with Rocha’s daughter Alejandra which is another reason not to trust him. John Grady’s lie lands him and Rawlins in jail where they both almost die; once they are finally free he can’t let the past