Wednesday, April 24, 2013

I need to write an essay about No country for old men. I thought about the importance of the setting (a desert and desolate place where the Law is...

You have chosen an interesting and, I think, a very workable topic.  In the novel, laws are unstable, and men seem to operate without a moral code.  The desert seems to reflect this emptiness.  The men seem as hollow as T.S. Eliot's "Hollow Men," and the dryness of the desert seems to symbolize their meaningless lives and deaths.  It is significant that the money was found in the desert surrounded by dead bodies.  This becomes a symbol and a foreshadowing of the fact that the main characters in the novel trade their lives for this money.  Moss's decision to keep the money results in the loss of his life and that of his wife's.  Even Carson Wells ends up paying with his life for his attempt to get the money.  There's a sense of waste, futility, and desolation.  


Once the characters become guided by greed, then they make the law of the jungle their guide.  They do what they can to outsmart, out run, out maneuver others.  Of course, Chigurh is the villain here, but others, though not as cruel and ruthless, show similar tendencies. In this world, Chigurh wins, mainly because he is smarter and more vicious than his competitors.  


Much of the action of the novel is in the city.  It is in hotels and hospitals, not the desert, but I think you can use the desert as a metaphor that extends throughout the novel.  There is no real justice in this novel. We see this when Chigurh kills Carla Jean.  Even her steadfast love cannot combat Chigurh's evil or her own husband's greed.  There seems to be an absence of individual integrity.  In fact, it seems that Bell is the only one who has any remorse over his actions.  He seems to accept the fact that the world is a barren place and that evil is stronger than good. (By the way, you might include Bell's experience in the Vietnam jungle in your discussion.) So in some ways, the city becomes the desert--it's at least as empty, infertile, and harsh as the desert.  


I hope this helps.  

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