Cormac McCarthy The Crossing

619 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Cormac mccarthy analysis

Cormac McCarthy The Crossing

This story contains an almost equal balance of good and evil, though it also raises questions of what is truly good. It blurs the line between good and selfish or thoughtless. Characters’ actions sometimes appear impure, but in the long run, are good.

In this story Billy is faced with a wide range of undeserved punishments, but shows good through all of them with his strong will and determination. He accepts the things that happen to him in a levelheaded manner, which works to keep the story from becoming a tragedy. The first instance of undeserved punishment is the death of Billy’s family. Not only was he unable to help them in any way, there was no good reason for it to happen. While Billy could lose all hope, become depressed, and angry at the world or at God for this injustice, he instead sets out to right the wrong.

To begin his venture to right the wrong, Billy goes to get Boyd, who’s been staying at another home after his family’s death. Before they leave, Billy takes a shotgun, blanket, money, and other supplies from the house. Boyd comments, “Even a outlaw don’t rob them that’s took him in and befriended him.” In this instance it could be said that Billy’s actions are morally wrong. In this case however, the ends justify the means. Billy is committing a small wrong to serve the greater good, which reflects a higher prompting on Billy’s behalf.

Billy’s patience is also tried when he learns of his heart murmur. He is attempti...

Show More
Related

  • Billy Pilgrim Character Analysis

    639 Words  | 2 Pages

    This world and its beliefs provide Billy with a way to escape the mental prison of his mind where even the sound of sirens caused him great distress. From the chronology to the diminishing reaction to the important moments in his life, Billy’s life becomes completely chaotic and meaningless, but he would not prefer any other alternative because this was the only one which was mentally

    Read More

  • Theme Of Free Will In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five

    1794 Words  | 4 Pages

    to it because his fate did not lead him there. Billy applied the fact that he had to accept

    Read More

  • Flannery O'Connor's Use of Religious Allegory

    2386 Words  | 5 Pages

    At the outset, an insightful reader needs to draft the general boundaries of allegory and symbolism in the story. To put it most simple, the problem of distinguishing between good and evil undergoes a discussion. It is not difficult to notice that the Grandmother stands for good and the Misfit for evil. But such a division would be a sweeping and superficial generalisation, for both the characters epitomize good and evil traits. Moral evaluation is a very complex process and it is not the human who is to decide on that. There are rather various degrees of goodness and evil, both interwoven, also in their religiousness. Th...

    Read More

  • Herman Melville's Billy Budd - Captain Vere was Correct

    633 Words  | 2 Pages

    occur, because the law states that a crime as severe as Billy's is punishable by

    Read More

  • John Gardner´s Grendel: An Epic Struggle Between Good and Evil

    806 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through the analysis of characters and their actions, the novel Grendel suggests society has adopted good and evil’s unequal relationship for meaningfulness in life. The modern society is built on the opposite forces of nature and that evil must be challenged although good prevails it. However, evil and good is subjective which makes the true struggle between good and evil. Moreover, our every day actions are differentiated between good and evil acts. Unfortunately, while this occurs, good and evil will never be a black and white concept.

    Read More

  • Free Will In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five

    1845 Words  | 4 Pages

    Billy is used to showing that everything happens because of fate. As a prisoner, Billy has no control over his day to day life. While Billy is in Dresden, the city is bombed, because of luck, only Billy and a few others survive the bombing in a slaughterhouse. The people of Tralfamadore tell Billy that humans do not understand time because everything they do is in singular progression.

    Read More

  • Good Vs. Evil In The Monkey's Paw

    772 Words  | 2 Pages

    At some point in their lifetime, a person obtains possession over a power they have not had once before. This single source could range anywhere from being able to choose a morning outfit to having three magical wishes. The power could come from within or an outside source, and how they use it determines what they perceive to world to be. From here, their morals become tested on whether to use this authority for selfish reasons or to do what is right. Good vs. evil dates back to the biblical literary figures, Adam and Eve, along with the “tree of bad and good” (Schachter 73). With many different versions of this encounter, the theme remains the same. In W.W. Jacobs’ short story “The Monkey’s Paw,” the narrator uses symbolism through parts of the setting, reiterating numbers, and objects that relate to biblical aspects as well as known morals.

    Read More

  • Morality and Egos in Radcliffe's The Italian

    1077 Words  | 3 Pages

    The characters in this novel entertain conflicting notions of morality and pride.  Sometimes, these characteristics are at odds with one another, creating the immoral and "evil" characters.  Other times, they cooperate to create realism in these people.  The moral characters are good, but still have enough pride to be dignified, yet not arrogant.  Sometimes, when the evil twins (or other halves) run amuck, things get out of hand and troubles abound.  Though most of the time these troubles spring from the discrepancy between pride and morality,  at other points, dignity and morality work hand in hand to create reliable and realistic characters.

    Read More

  • The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

    784 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Road, a post-apocalyptic, survival skills fiction book written by Cormac McCarthy and published in 2006 is part of the Oprah Winfrey book club. During an interview with Oprah, McCarthy answered questions about The Road that he had never been asked before because pervious to the interview he had never been interviewed. Oprah asked what inspired the heart breaking book; it turns out that McCarthy wrote the book after taking a vacation with his son John. While on the vacation he imagined the world fifty years later and seen fire in the distant hills. After the book was finished, McCarthy dedicated it to his son, John. Throughout the book McCarthy included things that he knows he and his son would do and conversations that he thinks they may have had. (Cormac). Some question if the book is worth reading for college course writing classes because of the amount of common writing “rule breaks”. After reading and doing assignments to go along with The Road, I strongly believe that the novel should be required for more college courses such as Writing and Rhetoric II. McCarthy wrote the book in a way to force readers to get out of their comfort zones; the book has a great storyline; so doing the assignments are fairly easy, and embedded in the book are several brilliant survival tactics.

    Read More

  • The Dallas Cowboy Football Soldier

    595 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Cowboys’ relentless questioning of Billy causes him to have to think back on past experiences and situation. One of experiences that Billy had to go back to was to himself killing another person. After Octavian asks Billy about the feeling of killing someone, “Billy swallows. The hard question. That’s where he bleeds, exactly.”(176). The type of question that Octavian asks is the type of question that bothers Billy greatly. He does not like to think about the people that he had to kill in combat. Killing is not a thought that he likes to have resurface. While Billy is uncomfortable with this topic, the players are intrigued and interested on what Billy has to say about it. It is also said that, “Someday he’ll have to build a church there, if he survives the war.”(176). Billy wants to build a church if he survives the war as a way to atone for all the killing that he has had to do for his

    Read More

  • Themes Of A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Good Country People

    1402 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many have written entire novels on the topic of good versus evil. Philosophers have spent their entire lives researching and debating and providing theories to somehow find an answer that will never be clear. What makes a person evil or good? In her short stories, “A Good Man is hard to find” and “Good Country People,” Flannery O’Connor explores the theme of good versus evil and differentiating between them and what that conveys about the complexity of human nature.

    Read More

  • Dubliners by James Joyce

    889 Words  | 2 Pages

    There is always hope that maybe one day one can escape far away from problems and be free for once. Eveline’ story from Dubliners by James Joyce, conveys the downside of holding on to the past when looking for a better future. Eveline is a young woman who is thinking about a new life away from a violent father and an unfortunate life. In the short story, Eveline plans to go away with Frank to Buenos Ayres, but Eveline fails to join him while remembering her promises she made to her mother. Joyce utilizes foreshadowing and symbolism to display how holding on to the past makes it impossible for someone to move forward.

    Read More

  • Good And Evil In 'The Knife Of Never Letting Go'

    1223 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel by Patrick Ness the protagonist – Todd Hewit, a young boy is thrust in to the world, which is unknown to him. Together with his companions – his loyal dog Munchee and the first girl he has ever seen Viola, he must outrun an army with his tyrant mayor, and his insane priest, who is trying to kill them. During this journey, Todd realises how oblivious he has been his whole life. The good in this novel is shown by the help of Todd and his thoughts, it can be mentioned that on the planet where he lives, every thought of males can be heard, unless one is able to control them. The battle of good and evil in the novel can also be described as the fight Todd battles in his journey, when he is made to work under the mayor as his subordinate. Todd understands that the things he must do are immoral, but in some cases he forgets that, because of the persuasion of the Mayor, who in this case is the antagonist. Todd gets to understand his wrong doings by the help of his companion – Viola. (Ness,

    Read More

  • The Positive Effect: The Principles Of Double Effect

    1029 Words  | 3 Pages

    We all know there is right and wrong, and that we should focus on doing what is right. However, in many cases such as these two provided to us for this assignment, choosing good has some serious consequences. Unfortunately, life gives us difficult situations, and some cannot always avoid the negative outcomes or side effects that come with the positive action. As individuals, we should strive to avoid evil, and seek good. Although the situations had some negative consequences, in these cases, the good actions were taken according to the principle of double

    Read More

  • Good And Evil Analysis

    858 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wilkie Collins once questioned how “the best men are not consistent in good, so why should the worst men be consistent in evil.” Generally, people find the existence of intrinsic good and evil within people, yet many challenge this concept. Gibran contends that good easily evolves into the traditional understanding of “evil,” and as such, we should see traditional understandings of “evil” instead as misfortune upon the good. Comparably, in Lord of the Flies, Golding portrays an evil within all erupting only when forced into a precarious situation; however, he argues that this innate vulnerability to evil within humans deems humans themselves to be evil.

    Read More

More about Cormac McCarthy The Crossing

Open Document