The Three Generations Represented in No Country For Old Men

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Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men follows three very different men in a tense cat and mouse chase through several border towns. It begins with a drug smuggling deal gone very wrong in the middle of the desert that leaves behind a truck bed full of cocaine and a sack with 1.4 million dollars left for someone to discover. When on a hunting endeavor, Llewelyn Moss discovers the scene and the million dollars. When he takes the money, he seals his fate with a brutal killer named Anton Chiguhr, and the old Sheriff, Ed Tom Bell. These men display three different personalities and mannerisms. The three main characters in Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men represent three different generations. Ed Tom Bell is Sheriff for a small town in Arizona along the border and he is very concerned for his people but he often shows the decline in society and displays it in a calm but poignant manner that appears frequently in Bell’s soliloquies through out the book, “A meditative Sheriff named Bell, Sheriff Bell hints more at hopelessness then hope” (Cheuse). Bell is not with out the wisdom that age brings and has seen his share of atrocities World War 2, “Decorated for bravery sheriff bell has family links to the old west and to the Texas lawman tradition. He represents the vanished world where sheriffs knew and cared for their people” (Deirdre). Bell from a generation of Children raised to answer, “yes ma’am,” and, “no ma’am,” is devout to his sense of right and wrong and his calling in life, “He’s an aging warrior carrying an ancient guilt of his own, but still firm in his knowledge of right and wrong and his devotion to duty” (Wolley) Bell’s generation has a quality of kindness and a caring nature that is predominant in Bell’s chara... ... middle of paper ... ...red (NPR)(n.d.): Newspaper source. EBSCO. Web. 16 Nov. 2009. Poling, Dean. “Book review: “No Country for Old Men”/ Cormac McCarthy. Valdesta Daily Times, The (Valdesta , GA) 2 Nov. 2007: Newspaper source. EBSCO. Web. 16 Nov. 2009. McCarthy, Cormac. No Country for Old Men. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. Jeff, Simon. “No Country for Old Men: The west is dry, dusty and darn mean: its dry dusty and darn mean in? No Country.” Buffalo news, The (NY) 16 Nov. 2007: Newspaper source. EBSCO. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. The Cormac McCarthy Homepages: The official website of Cormac McCarthy Society. Web. 16 Nov. 2009. Vognar , Chris. “No Country for Old Men.” Dallas Morning News, The (TX)07. 17 Nov. 2009. Wolley, Bryan. “Even murder doesn’t sedate lead villain in ‘No Country.” Dallas Morning newspaper source. EBSCO. Web. 18 Nov. 2009.

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