Cormac McCarthy

Searchers, all the typical traits of the myth of the west are present. However, in All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, the typical cowboy ideal is less clear. McCarthy uses contradictory themes to simultaneously challenge and submit to the myth of the cowboy presented by Ford. The main characters John Grady and Ethan may seem similar at first glance, but they both have very different values. McCarthy questions and glorifies the ideas Ford presents through paradoxical use of violence,…

Published in 2006, the book The Road by Cormac McCarthy depicts the life of a man and his son living in a post-apocalyptic world. They spend their lives journeying on the road, never straying too far for too long. The two of them encounter multiple people, good and bad, who influence them positively and negatively on their way to the south. In the midst of a world of chaos, McCarthy illustrates that the man’s outlook oscillates between hope and despair because his strong relationship with the…

Cormac McCarthy’s novel No Country for Old Men, later adapted into a movie directed by Ethan and Joel Coen in 2007, is about a man who is risking his life and the life of his wife in order to keep money he stole from a drug deal gone wrong, he must escape from Anton Chigurh, who is also after the money and will stop at nothing to get it. The distinction between Cormac McCarthy’s novel No Country For Old Men and the film No Country for Old Men (2007), is that some of the characters are portrayed…

allow the world to fall into apocalyptic times? Much more like the famous quote by Albert Einstein, “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones” (22). In the book The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the reader is placed in the aftermath of a catastrophic war that left the world in ruins such as in an apocalyptic manner. The book depicts the ordeal of a father and son trying to recuperate what these disastrous events took from them.…

there. I can see it." (McCarthy 2006, 70). The man has constantly used and told about the idea of "fire" that the good people used to…

of both Wilfred Owen and Cormac McCarthy. Both texts look at the horrors that have derived from conflict including: nature turning against humanity; the loss of civilisation; the loss of faith and the idea of morality. Steven Frye notes that the themes within The Road “deal directly with violence, human degradation, and both human and natural evil.” These themes exhibit the horrors of conflict and can be clearly detected within Owen’s poetry too. Both Owen and McCarthy present the horrors of…

The relationship between a father and a son is often very special. A father will do anything for his son; however, in “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, the father goes above and beyond to make sure that his son is protected. Although the name of the father is not revealed in the book, the reader is given much insight to the father character through both his actions and his words. The father endures several challenges on his journey on the road, but he is able to provide for the boy. “The Road”…

humans have. As commonly examined, fallibility refers to making mistakes or blatantly wrong choices because of the fact that humans are imperfect beings. Cormac McCarthy’s stellar novel, No Country for Old Men examines this concept, along with the role of religion in one’s life. But, instead of merely discussing the topic of religion, McCarthy highlights the concept through then novel’s violent antagonist, Anton Chigurh. In No Country for Old Men, the actions and journey of Anton Chigurh…

‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy and ‘Children of Men’ by Alfanso Cuaron are two texts which are set in an apocalyptic scenario with a prominent threat to the overall existence of the human race. In ‘Children of Men’ the threat of global infertility impends towards the extermination of humans whilst in ‘The Road’ the lack of resources and widespread cannibalism leaves everyone’s life at risk. Breaking the trend of infertility, “Children of Men’ tells of story of a ‘saviour child’ which becomes the…

These books revolve around the question of death and how it can affect people’s lives currently. A common theme amongst these books is the depressing, dull picture of a life that is not lived in surrender to God Almighty. In The Sunset Limited, Cormac McCarthy outlines White’s desire to escape into a world of nothingness. White is educated, but ironically Black has a more realistic picture of the world. White lived an easier life than Black, but Black chose to be happy. In this story, Black’s…