Cormac McCarthy: Explorer of Humanity’s Core

Literature has always attempted to explore the human psyche. Romantic works examine the emotion behind attraction and betrayal, love and desire. Fantasy novels take the reader to an imaginary world, filled with wonders. Gothic literature intertwines romance and horror, and often features the supernatural. Southern Gothic writing explores the gothic within the more realistic bounds of southern culture while revealing the grotesque––the base and broken nature of the human soul and how society is easily susceptible to ruin, both spiritually and physically. As today’s most important Southern Gothic writer, Cormac McCarthy crafts works and themes which delve into the nature of humanity, explore the depravity, futility, and, ultimately, reveal the hope that exists inside each individual.

A common sight within McCarthy’s novels is a human committing some sort of violent or depraved act against another human being. Lester Ballard in Child of God acts in a manner that society looks down upon, such as murdering a couple, but, according to Rosemary Reisman, McCarthy makes Ballard’s actions seem a part of human nature (3). It is not only in Child of God where McCarthy’s dark take on the nature of humanity is revealed. Outer Dark features many characters that display primitive, inhuman emotions. Within the book, the tinker character is a symbolic representation of evil according to Edwin Arnold. The tinker’s actions, lack of humanity, and swindling ways all cause pain and death around him (3). As all of this sin is being committed, retribution comes down to enact punishment. The trio of killers in Outer Dark is the physical representation of Culla’s sins toward himself and his sister, with whom he had an incestuous relationship and ends up des...

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McCarthy, Cormac. Child of God. New York: Vintage Books, 1973. Print.

---. Outer Dark. New York: Vintage Books, 1968. Print

---. The Road. New York: Vintage Book, 2006. Print

Reisman, Rosemary M. Canfield. “Child of God.” Masterplots. Fourth Edition. 2010. 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.

Trotter, Jack E. “The Road.” Magill’s Literary Annual, 2007. 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.