Isolation In Cormac Mccarthy's Child Of God

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When a child is left alone in its most critical stage of development, it forms an insecure attachment towards the mother. This means that when the child gets older, their ability to trust is eroded due to the isolation they experienced as an infant. In most cases, this leads to the inability to form relationships and the underdevelopment of social skills. In Child of God, Cormac McCarthy uses perspective, symbolism, and theme to explore self imposed and societally inflicted isolation and to show the effect it has on one’s psyche. Many individuals feel the need to turn to someone or something that brings them comfort when life gets intense. Most of the time, it turns out to be religion. The theme of religion (or lack thereof) is very covert …show more content…

He poured into that ear everything he'd ever thought of saying to a woman” (141). In this moment, Ballard had just found a couple naked and dead in their car after being shot in the head while having sex. After investigating the scene, he decides to get into the car and have a closer look. As soon as he is sure they are dead, Ballard pushes the guy off of the girl and begins to have sex with her corpse. He knew that what he was doing was wrong, yet lacked the morality to care. Many argue that Ballard is a mentally ill individual that commits putrid acts and therefore cannot be a child of God, while others say that no matter how strayed he is from morality, it only makes him all the more human. With the way that Ballard acts, it is apparent that the fact that he is ostracized by society only feeds his need to be alone and away from those that hurt him. McCarthy makes plenty of references to Ballard being inhuman throughout the entire book. According to Dianne C. Luce, the reason Ballard is considered a “child of God” is simply because he is human. But what constitutes a person as being human? “McCarthy emphasizes Ballard’s likeness to an animal in a range of behaviors...In short, Ballard’s behaviors cast him as merely one among many

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