Wednesday, August 5, 2009

A movie and a lullaby...

I decided to type in "All the Pretty Horses" on google to see what would come up. I found out that a film adaptation was made back in 2000. According to the reviews, the movie alone is supposed to be terrible. That means compared to the book it must be really bad. Has anyone seen it?

Now for the main point...

I found out that "All the Pretty Horses" is an old lullaby that was sung slaves during the pre-Civil War period of America. Here it is...

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Go to sleepy little baby.
When you wake, you shall have,
All the pretty little horses.
Blacks and bays, dapples and greys,
Go to sleepy you little baby,
Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Go to sleepy little baby.
Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Go to sleepy little baby,
When you wake, you shall have,
All the pretty little horses.
Way down yonder, down in the meadow,
There's a poor wee little lamby.
The bees and the butterflies pickin' at its eyes,
The poor wee thing cried for her mammy.
Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Go to sleepy little baby.
When you wake, you shall have,
All the pretty little horses.
The lullaby is about how the slaves were seperated from their familes. Since John Grady leaves his family behind and goes to Mexico, it could explain the title of the book.

5 comments:

  1. Interesting. I wouldn't have known that. Thanks.
    I wonder why all our lullabies involve bribery. The theme is always if the baby stops acting badly, then it will be given something material. The baby will not be loved better or respected or even avoid a sound thrashing, but will be bought horses or diamond rings or candy. I mean, you'd think that infancy would be beyond materialism, but then you'd be wrong.

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  2. Does the verse about the lamb (which I realize is probably supposed to be about the slave-child's separation from its mother) seem completely random or is it just me? It doesn't seem to fit in very well with the theme of the rest of the song.

    That commentary aside, when I first started reading All the Pretty Horses I had immediately thought of this lullabye. (It was the one my grandfather - a huge horse enthusiast who would have loved this book - used to sing to me.) I personally saw the tie-in between the title and the lullabye to represent John Grady's attempts to attain his dreams. The horses played a huge part in his dreams, and he is continually linked to them.
    They were his passion, and if he could have "all the pretty horses" he would meet his life goals.
    My favorite passage that links John Grady's passion with horses is on page 6.
    "What he loved in horses was what he loved in men, the blood and the heat of the blood that ran them. All his reverence and all his fondness and all the leanings of his life were for the ardenthearted and they would always be so and never be otherwise."

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  3. I think the reason lullabies involve bribery is due to the fact that it involves work to find out the reason the child is acting the way that he is. For many parents it is easier to offer the child a bribe in exchange for the child's action to stop. It is important for parents to find out why the child is acting the way he is (what the child needs; food, drink, a clean diaper, stimulation, ect.) instead of just getting the behavior to stop. I guess since material things are so important to many adults, they must think this importance must be the same for their child.

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  4. I'm with Tina, you see it pretty often in public where parents are willing to do anything just to get the baby to shut up, instead of doing the right thing.

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  5. I have watched the movie version. I didn't think it was that bad. As far as movies go, it followed the plot of the book fairly consistently. All though some details had been cut, the basic storyline was the same as it was in the book. The best part of the movie was Jimmy Blevins. The actor did a great job of portraying a kid who was desperately trying to be a man who who was extremely afraid of dying.

    As a a further response to Tina, I totally agree. At least at a young age, children cry when they NEED something (even if they need comfort because something is worng). It is only after children that learn that crying gets me what I want does the child throw temper tantrums. In my experience, if a child is taught when to cry (by not picking the child up whenever they have the tiniest bump) and the parents quickly respond to the child's ligitament needs, then the child will feel safe and secure in the world around them and will learn how to be self-sufficient.

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