No Country For Old Men Critique

            For my summer reading book I read No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, which was a very action filled novel with a lot of suspense that made it a very easy read. The novel seemed to be commercial instead of literary because of its intricate plot, but I think it also contained some literary aspects in it as well. The book starts off by characterizing the three main characters with individual’s scenes of each. It uses imagery to show how each character lived there everyday life. Chigurh makes his first impression by killing an officer with absolutely no remorse at all, while moss is depicted as simple hunter. The third main character is the sheriff bell who narrates the beginning by telling his background and how being a sheriff now is a very dangerous job and opens the book talking about sacrificing his life. We already learned this year that you can learn a lot about the book by the opening paragraph and this one tells the whole story foreshadowing the fight for life that occurs throughout the book. I really enjoyed how the book jumped straight into the action unlike most books I’ve read in my life time that’s why I would strongly recommend it. The novel also had very interesting themes about principles, which make you question justifying Chigurh massive killing massacre. The story seems to be all action based but you can definitely feel the depth the author put into the story line. Often in the novel fate is brought up and it makes you think whether or not you can control it or if everything is completely set and happens for a reason. There is a motif of tossing a coin that really conveys this theme of fate vs. no fate. Chigurh tosses a coin and lets them call it to decide whether they die or not, which is very interesting because when they get it right he keeps his word and it makes you like and respect his character more even though he is a psychopathic killer. I also liked how the story was based on a relatively serious topic of Moss finding money and then having to run from a killer that always seems to find him, but at the same time he throws in a lot of comedy. This dark twisted comedy kind of lightens the mood and makes the story more enjoyable to read. An example of this dark comedy would be when moss is talking to his wife he says “if I don’t come back tell mother I love her”, she replies “your mothers dead, Llewellyn”, and then he says back “well then I’ll tell her myself”. This dark humor that is added to the book really shows the carelessness of moss and makes you like and feel attached to his character. This affect gives the audience a very strong connection to the story line and a need to find out the suspenseful and dark fate of each of the 3 characters.