Cormac McCarthy: All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, The Road (Continuum Studies in Contemporary North American Fiction) by Sara Spurgeon

Author:Sara Spurgeon [Spurgeon, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Continuum UK - Academic
Published: 2011-05-19T04:00:00+00:00

Second Dialogue: Wells

Proof that Chigurh has given the gas station man a Socratic gift— however terrifying—follows when we see him kill Wells. The film elides Chigurh’s explanation to Wells of why he must kill him instead of taking a bribe, but we will see other, again visual, evidence that in this case, the two works agree on Chigurh’s methods and principles. Referring to his injuries from his gun battle with Moss, Chigurh admits, “Getting hurt changed” him, “I’ve sort of caught up with myself” (173). He then tells Wells what leads to his arrest by the deputy whom we see killed with the handcuffs: essentially, he killed for purely personal reasons, taking a verbal insult in a cafe so seriously as to kill the man who insulted him. He then “let” the deputy take him into custody. “I’m not sure why I did this but I think I wanted to see if I could extricate myself by an act of will. Because I believe that one can. [. . .] But it was a foolish thing to do. A vain thing to do. Do you understand?” (my emphasis, 174–75). Here the question, “Do you understand?” makes it clear that even in confession, Chigurh intends to persuade.

By characterizing the murder as “vain,” Chigurh means that to test the limits of free will and personal agency for no reason other than to conduct the test is to tempt fate too much. “Hubris” to the classical Greeks meant not only pride, but also an excessive inclination toward violence. Furthermore, “Hubris means believing that you are a god, i.e., that you cannot suffer; pride means a defiant attempt to become a god” (Horizon Aug. 87 usage in O.E.D.). Being wounded would remind Chigurh that, although no normal human, he is not quite a god, and the killing of the deputy certainly requires prolonged and horrifying violence far beyond a gunshot or even cattle gun bolt; it is outrageously violent. Why does Chigurh attempt to persuade Wells of anything here?

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.