No Country For Old Men Moral Analysis

1192 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Cormac mccarthy analysis

In Cormac McCarthy’s spine-chilling novel No Country For Old men, the main characters, Anton Chigurh, Llewelyn Moss, and Sheriff Bell possess noticeably different characteristics; However, by far the most different is their morals, which play an immense role in this book. The theme of morality is established throughout the novel and is manifested as the morals of the characters, what choices they make, and how do these choices impact them. I intend to analyze the instances of Moss’s morals, Chigurh’s morals when it comes to killing, and Bell’s morals as a sheriff. Llewelyn Moss is willing to steal a satchel filled with millions of dollars although he is aware of the consequences. During this novel Moss is the character that most people can relate can relate the most to. This is partly due to the fact that he is an ex military sniper and lives in south texas in a mobile home. Austin Cooper agrees with this statement saying,”Moss is shown to be the underdog. He is just a common guy trying to make off with the satchel of money and fighting for his life throughout. Moss’s determination and resourcefulness in front of such …show more content…

He's a Sheriff in El Paso and is the one that is always one step behind Chigurh and Moss. As any reasonable lawman should have, Bells morals are that of legal actions. He believes in always doing the right thing. This is one of the reasons that Bell is on the run after them. Since he is an older man he also has to deal with all of this carnage unfolding before him and not making much sense of it, Or as Austin phrases it” Bell is the weather-beaten sheriff unlucky enough to observe as this carnage unfold. In a story of atypical archetypes, Sheriff Bell would be the aging sage. If Moss is representative of a new cowboy, Bell is an old era cowboy caught outside his time. Largely a bystander, Bell is witnessing a change in the world around him and tries to makes sense of it

Show More
Related

  • No Country for Old Men

    1618 Words  | 4 Pages

    Bitter about the evolution of the corruption of society, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell plays the official hero clinging to old traditions and reminiscing about the old days in No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. Delusions of a peaceful utopia during the time his grandpa Jack was a sheriff has left Bell looking at the world through hopeless eyes; a world on its knees with only one explanation for its demise: Satan. Not necessarily a religious man, Sheriff Bell, when asked if he believes in Satan, remarks: “He explains a lot of things that otherwise don’t have no explanation. Or not to me they don’t” (218). Throughout No County for Old Men, Sheriff Bell is determined to save Llewellyn Moss in order to prove that justice can be served in a world now drenched in decay. Throughout the book and the film adaptation, the audience can see Sheriff Bell, a tormented old man, sink deeper into his bitterness and his hope sizzle away in the Texas heat.

    Read More

  • Society vs. Heart in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn

    2117 Words  | 5 Pages

    Ernest Hemmingway once described a novel by Mark Twain as, “…it is the ‘one book’ from which ‘all modern American literature’ came from” (Railton). This story of fiction, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a remarkable story about a young boy growing up in a society that influences and pressures people into doing the so-called “right thing.” It is not very difficult to witness the parallels between the society Huck has grown up in and the society that influences the choices of people living today. However, what is it that gives society the power to draw guidelines to define the norms, trends, and what is morally right and wrong in life? Is it always the best choice to listen to your consciences, which is under the influence of society, or is it sometimes just as important to listen to your heart and what you think is right?

    Read More

  • The Assault by Harry Mulisch

    1203 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Harry Mulisch’s novel The Assault, the author not only informs society of the variance in perception of good and evil, but also provides evidence on how important it is for an innocent person experiencing guilt to come to terms with their personal past. First, Mulisch uses the characters Takes, Coster, and Ploeg to express the differences in perspective on the night of the assault. Then he uses Anton to express how one cannot hide from the past because of their guilt. Both of these lessons are important to Mulisch and worth sharing with his readers.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Moral Courage Analysis

    105 Words  | 1 Pages

    Harper Lee gives several points that make it evident in To Kill A Mockingbird that moral courage is greater than physical courage. She demonstrates this mainly by using a child’s point of view. Although there is some evidence of moral courage by adults in To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee decides to lead this evidence mainly by the children in the story.

    Read More

  • Human Selfless or Selfish in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    1298 Words  | 3 Pages

    People exploit the faults in their surroundings in hypocritical attempts to justify their own imperfections. Goodman Brown and Dimmesdale demonstrate hypocrisy in their efforts to avoid confronting their own distorted realities. Both Goodman Brown and Dimmesdale seek to exemplify the ideal Puritan lifestyle. After succumbing to unfaithful temptations, both men recognize that they have transgressed certain central values of their respective puritan communities yet neither correctly identifies the sin that ultimately debases his initially righteous character. For instance, Goodman Brown breaches basic Puritan prin...

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Moral Courage Essay

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    How far would you go to do the right thing if it had the potential to hurt you in the long run? In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, that was a question that the characters had to ask themselves when they knew they had to do the right thing but did not know how far they should go. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates moral courage throughout the book by using the literary elements such as conflict and characterization.

    Read More

  • Observation of Morals in To Kill a Mockingbird

    806 Words  | 2 Pages

    Harper Lee deftly weaves plot in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird by inserting the overarching theme of moral conviction and development, as well as spindling in symbolism, to construct the conflicting moral views present in her brilliant tapestry that is To Kill a Mockingbird. Throughout the novel, the reader sees Atticus Finch standing tall and firma as the novel’s moral backbone- rooted deeply in his moral convictions and willing to subject himself and his family to scrutiny to protect innocence. His foil, Bob Ewell, quickly asserts himself as the symbol for decay, routinely diving deeper into his pit of moral filth. Observing the tumult is Scout, Atticus’ young daughter who is experiencing the Tom Robinson case as a young child in her formative developmental years. We see her ‘come of age’ slightly as she begins to develop a moral conscience of her own. Not coincidentally, each character has influence and is influenced by others, resulting in a complex drapery of moral decisions and development.

    Read More

  • Morality In The Light Between Oceans By M. L. Stedman

    1335 Words  | 3 Pages

    Morality is an abstract concept that continues to confuse people worldwide, a concept that is accompanied by the image of a compass. However, people believe that morality is a generalized system, but then how are morals symbolized by a compass if most compasses are different? The answer is obvious in M. L. Stedman 's The Light Between Oceans where the author communicates that morality is not defined in black and white terms, but is rather a blurred shade of grey. Stedman gives readers this answer through the actions and reactions of Tom and Isabel, Hannah, and Lucy on the decision made to keep Lucy on Janus Rock. The decision that rocks an entire town is made by Tom and Isabel.

    Read More

  • Social Traditions in Medea, The Piano, and The Age of Innocence

    2113 Words  | 5 Pages

    Traditions demonstrate a set of social norms that have been followed and adapted to for an elongated amount of time. In each of the plots, Medea, The Piano, and The Age of Innocence, the standard set by society was broken and the consequences imposed took form in varying degrees and shapes of violence. Whether it was outright murder as in Medea, or a more subtle but intense struggle as in The Age of Innocence, these consequences serve as the community's opinion of this breach of its expectations for its members.

    Read More

  • I am the Cheese - Theme

    1564 Words  | 4 Pages

    Heroes are not always credited for their honesty and righteousness. This is the view towards society that Robert Cormier exhibits in the novel ¡§I am the Cheese¡¨, where the individual is punished for standing up to himself. In this society, the non-valiant are rewarded for their ignorance and compliance, narrated through the characters of Grey and Whipper. Moreover, Robert Cormier portrays this society to be void of truth and justice. This is seen through exploring the innocence behind Adam¡¦s parents¡¦ suffering and death. Nevertheless, the author holds reserve for truth and justice when Adam tries to complete the puzzle of his past.

    Read More

  • Red Harvest Sparknotes

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Red Harvest, in both his description of both “Poisonville” and it’s inhabitants, Hammett uses contradicting language, and often iconic reoccurring imagery to express the deterioration of American morals with the growth of underground crime, judicial politics, and the emergence of the femme fatal. The characters in the novel, including the operative himself are willing to lie, cheat, and kill in cold blood for their own personal gain. Although infidelity, greed, and self-preservation are expected from characters involved with the murders and inner crime ring; the story becomes more complicated when characters like the operative, and chief of police begin to get their hands dirty. Bringing the age-old crime ad punishment theme to a higher tier where the reader is unable to make an impulsive decision on who is a “bad guy”, and who is a “good guy”.

    Read More

  • Guilt in Charles Brockden Browns’ Wieland

    944 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are many ways to decide what makes a man guilty. In an ethical sense, there is more to guilt than just committing the crime. In Charles Brockden Browns’ Wieland, the reader is presented with a moral dilemma: is Theodore Wieland guilty of murdering his wife and children, even though he claims that the command came from God, or is Carwin guilty because of his history of using persuasive voices, even though his role in the Wieland family’s murder is questionable? To answer these questions, one must consider what determines guilt, such as responsibility, motives, consequences, and the act itself. No matter which view is taken on what determines a man’s guilt, it can be concluded that Wieland bears the fault in the murder of Catharine Wieland and her children.

    Read More

  • Joan Didion's On Morality

    677 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin, “On Morality'; is an essay of a woman who travels to Death Valley on an assignment arranged by The American Scholar. “I have been trying to think, because The American Scholar asked me to, in some abstract way about ‘morality,’ a word I distrust more every day….'; Her task is to generate a piece of work on morality, with which she succeeds notably. She is placed in an area where morality and stories run rampant. Several reports are about; each carried by a beer toting chitchat. More importantly, the region that she is in gains her mind; it allows her to see issues of morality as a certain mindset. The idea she provides says, as human beings, we cannot distinguish “what is ‘good’ and what is ‘evil’';. Morality has been so distorted by television and press that the definition within the human conscience is lost. This being the case, the only way to distinguish between good or bad is: all actions are sound as long as they do not hurt another person or persons. This is similar to a widely known essay called “Utilitarianism'; [Morality and the Good Life] by J.S. Mills with which he quotes “… actions are right in the proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.';

    Read More

  • Walter A Raisin In The Sun Moral Analysis

    189 Words  | 1 Pages

    Walter is irresponsible by being absent from work without informing, he doesn’t take any responsibility for his wife’s abortion decision, and he doesn’t obedient his mother’s instruction. His employer “Mr. Arnold has had to take a cab for three days”. (105) Walter is absent to work indicating his moral irresponsibility on his personal level, it may cause inconvenient his employer so that is also social irresponsibility too. Walter doesn’t say anything about his wife’s decision on destroying the baby. “I am waiting to hear from you talk like your father and say we a people who give children life, not who destroys them.”(75)Walter’s silence on his wife’s decision saw clearly his irresponsibility morally and socially. Walter doesn’t follow his

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Moral Analysis

    461 Words  | 1 Pages

    Morality is knowing the difference between right and wrong.The mind chooses what makes sense and what does not, not right and wrong.In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird,uses the setting to show how the characters behave and interact with each other. The setting in the story affects the characters she does this so she can show how people behaved in that period of time. She also shows multiple conflicts on top of each other but connects in the end.

    Read More

More about No Country For Old Men Moral Analysis

Open Document