No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Quote of the Book:
"He'd felt like this before but not in a long time and when he said that, the he knew what it was. It was defeat. It was being beaten. More bitter to him than death"(307).
Throughout the novel No Country for Old Men there is this common theme of defeat. This quote gives a general idea of the book. Throughout the story each person is striving to succeed; the thought of defeat never even crossed their minds. This is where the theme of defeat comes into play. In this story, there is really not much success. Most of the characters inevitably fail what they are trying to do. In the quote above, their feelings are summed. None of them thought of the possibility of not succeeding, and when they are defeated death is preferable.

Connections:
This book holds many connections to the real world. It is a fictional story, but it is written in a real world setting. This is the first obvious connection. This story is set in the early 1900s in southern United States. The people are callous and extremely brief with one another. Most answers to questions are one word answers and conversations only last a moment.
A second connection to the real world would be the common theme of most people's desires; money. This whole story is started because of a bag of money. When an unsuspecting man walks down the road, he spots the remains of a fight. He moves on and finds a dead man clutching a bag full of money. The character finding the bag of money is the start of the entire story.
One last connection that the author makes is to the reader themselves. Many authors try to show the emotion of the characters to connect to the reader. but Cormac McCarthy goes out of his way to make sure that the characters have similarities to real people. One example is an experience of a police officer. To learn about this character, McCarthy has the reader find out, from a chapter with almost no cohesion with the rest of the book, the mindset of the officer. McCarthy is very successful at this kind of writing. It is extremely unconventional and allows the reader to connect with the characters.

Visual Representation: I chose this image because it represents what the story is about. One of the main themes of this story is danger. Throughout the entire story, it seems as if each character has an axe raised above their heads with a block under their chin. The story is very suspenseful in this way, and gives the reader a constant idea of danger. For example, one of the characters, the main antagonist, is a killer who makes sure anyone who knows about him has an axe ready to fall above their heads. At one point he states, "You're asking that I make myself vulnerable and that I can never do. I have only one way to live. It doesnt allow for special cases"(259). At this point, the antagonist is speaking to a girl he is about to kill. This is the only reason he kills those around him; he does not allow himself to become vulnerable. This idea is displayed throughout the book. Everyone is always in danger and there is always this axe suspended above their heads.

Questions:

1. Why does McCarthy write the way he does? (No quotation marks and no regard for common grammar)
2. Is the reward worth the risk? In this case is the money worth the constant danger?
3. Is the safest way to live to crush one's own vulnerabilities?
4. One of the main characters had previously had to leave incapacitated troops to die in war in order to survive and is angered at himself for leaving them. Should he be angry with himself? Should he have stayed and died with his other troops?
   
5. If you found a bag of money on the road, what would you do?

Reflection:
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy is one of the most, if not the most, peculiar books I have ever read. Something that bothered me was his writing style. There are no quotes, which seems absolutely pretentious, and the grammar is completely unconventional. In fact, I would most likely receive an F on a paper if I wrote in the grammatical style of Cormac McCarthy. Nonetheless, I was drawn into the story. The way that McCarthy wrote was extremely confusing, but it seemed authentic to the story. His writing style is rough and abrupt, which matches the actual plot. Honestly, I would suggest that people read this book, but they should not start reading with any predetermined ideas on it. I have never read anything like this book, but in some peculiar way I liked it.