The Fate of Luck

1570 Words4 Pages

The first outstanding aspect in No Country For Old Men is the absence of as much punctuation as possible. McCarthy used very few apostrophes, quotation marks, or any other basic punctuation to provide a variety of effects. Her writing style is just like the setting of the book – stripped down the bare necessities, plain, and wide open. It also nearly forces you to reread many sentences to gather all the information McCarthy has subtly injected in every line. It is a very unique but appealing style, particularly for this piece of literature. McCarthy’s literary style adds a different look to what is already an action packed novel.

The point of view played a very integral role in No Country For Old Men. The addition of first person from Sheriff Bell’s view almost added another side conflict. Without being able to read about what he really felt, the reader would be unaware to the guilt and blame he is straddled with. This emotional burden was from an execution he was in charge of in the past. He, “sent one boy to the gas chamber at Huntsville. One and only one. My arrest and my testimony. I went up there and visited with him two or three times. Three times. The last time was the day of his execution. I didn’t have to go but I did.” (Page 3). To Sheriff Bell, tracking down and killing Anton Chigurh was the only way he could retain his confidence and dignity as a sheriff. After he failed to capture the mass-murderer, he felt stepping down was the right thing to do. However, without being able to dig into Bell’s mind, he would be just another stock character. McCarthy’s use of first person point of view adds a different, interesting perspective to what is already an interesting and exciting plot.

Violence and brutality are very invo...

... middle of paper ...

...te.html>.

Reisinger, Don. "Call of Duty: Black Ops launch beats MW2 Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20022509-17.html#ixzz1Ix6asXQR."news.cnet.net. Cnet, 11 011 2010. Web. 8 Apr 2011. .

"Punishment." en.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, 17 003 2010. Web. 8 Apr 2011. .

"Death Penalty." www.gallup.com. Gallup, 06 005 2002. Web. 8 Apr 2011. .

"Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46."www.canlii.org. Canadian Legal Information Institute, 15 012 2010. Web. 8 Apr 2011. .

Robinson, B.A. "Facts about capital punishment."www.religioustolerance.org. Religious Tolerance, 07 012 2009. Web. 8 Apr 2011. .

Open Document