No Country for Old Men

“What do you say to a man who by his own admission has no soul? Why would you say anything? I’ve thought about it a good deal. But he wasn’t nothin compared to what was comin down the pike.” 

Sheriff Bell recognizes the evil before him, but is baffled by it. This foreshadows the confrontations to come as the story unfolds, with an even more baffling, wicked person.

“But there is another view of the world out there and other eyes to see it and that’s where this is goin. It has done brought me to a place in my life I would not of thought I’d of come to. Somewhere out there is a true and living prophet of destruction and I don’t want to confront him. I know he’s real. I have seen his work. I walked in front of those eyes once. I won’t do it again.” 

Sheriff Bell foreshadows the events of the novel in this passage. He reveals that he is telling this story after the events of the novel have finished, in repose and having thought through what he wants to say. He is narrating from a place of reflection and contemplation. The tone of this passage reveals that though he’s seen great evil, he no longer wants to confront or fight it as a sheriff, because in fighting it, he believes he would be putting his soul in danger. His warning prepares the reader for what is to come, foreshadowing an evil antagonist.

“Because I always knew that you had to be willin to die to even do this job. That was always true. Not to sound glorious about it or nothing but you do. If you won’t they’ll know it. They’ll see it in a heartbeat. I think it is more like what you are willin to become. And I think a man would have to put his soul at hazard. And I won’t do that. I think now that maybe I never would.” 

Again, Sheriff Bell announces that though he’s been willing to risk his life for his job, he has realized that he isn’t willing to go so far as to risk his soul or become evil to fight evil. Certain of his own limits, Sheriff Bell draws a line which he refuses to cross.

“There was a heavy leather document case standing upright alongside the dead man’s knee and Moss absolutely knew what was in the case and he was scared in a way that he didn’t even understand.” 

Having stumbled into the scene of a drug-deal gone wrong, Moss doesn’t hesitate to track down the drug money and take it. He ignores his feeling of fear. This is a trademark of Moss’s character: he knows that he is doing something wrong, but he ignores his own feelings and does it anyway.

“When the moon did rise it sat swollen and pale and ill formed among the hills to light up all the land about and he turned off the headlights of the truck.” 

Moss returns to give water to the dying man at the scene of the drug deal. These images foreshadow Moss’s unfortunate choices that lead to his death. As the narrator, Moss himself sees the dangerous road he has chosen here.

“He felt like something in a jar.”

Moss returns to the scene of the drug deal, with water and a gun to finish off the Mexican drug dealer. He finds instead that someone else has been there, killed the drug dealer, and taken the remaining guns and the drugs. This sentence indicates his awareness of being trapped and that he is also less than human—a bug or specimen. McCarthy gives Moss powerful images that describe his situation. Moss always sees his situation clearly, even when he’s making terrible choices.

“He could see the truck in the moonlight at the top of the rise. He looked off to one side of it to see it the better. There was someone standing beside it. Then they were gone. There is no description of a fool, he said, that you fail to satisfy. Now you’re gonna die.” 

Moss tells himself what he has known since he made the choice to steal the drug money. He knows that he will be hunted until he is dead. His mistake is thinking only in terms of his own life, and thinking that his death will satisfy his debt to the drug dealers. Though he is an experienced hunter and soldier, Moss’s morals remain as old-fashioned as Sheriff Bell’s. In the new drug wars, among the men with no souls, family members lie in the firing line too—his brother and his wife. He castigates himself, but typically, he makes bad choices, such as returning to the drug scene, even though he knows it’s a mistake. At every turn, he underestimates the determination and ruthlessness of his enemy, because at the bottom of his character lies an inherent decency. He fails to account for men, just as Sheriff Bell does, who will stop at nothing.

“There’s no requirements in the Texas State Constitution for bein a sheriff. Not a one. There’s no such thing as a county law. You think about a job where you have pretty much the same authority as God and there is no requirements put upon you and you are charged with preserving nonexistent laws and you tell me if that’s peculiar or not. Cause I say that it is. Does it work? Yes. Ninety percent of the time. It takes very little to govern good people. Very little. And bad people can’t be governed at all. Or if they could I never heard of it.” 

Sheriff Bell reveals his belief that most people are good and easily governed. Though there are no requirements for being a sheriff in Texas, he takes his job of protecting and looking out for the people of his county very seriously. Bell’s characteristic pragmatic common sense and intelligence show here.

“It’s a mess, aint it Sheriff?

If it aint it’ll do till a mess gets here.” 

In a characteristically blunt and dryly humorous exchange, Sheriff Bell and his deputy Wendell observe the scene before them of a drug deal gone sour. Eight bodies, a dead dog, and several trucks lie before them shot to pieces. Sheriff Bell’s life experience has prepared him for such sights, but this massacre is extreme for his quiet corner of the borderlands. This discovery follows on from that of a dead civilian in the trunk of a deputy’s cruiser and the death of a deputy the day before. Suddenly, this quiet countryside is drawn into a war—a drug war.

“I used to say that they were the same ones we’ve always had to deal with. Same ones my granddaddy had to deal with. Back then they was rustling cattle. Now they’re runnin dope. But I don’t know as that’s true no more. I’m like you. I aint sure we’ve seen these people before. These kind. I don’t know what to do about em even. If you killed em all they’d have to build a annex on to hell.”

Sheriff Bell discusses the kind of criminal that they are looking for after the discovery of the drug scene. Including the death of the innocent man found in the deputy’s trunk and the deputy, they have ten murders on their hands. They have never before had to deal with such a trail of destruction and death. Bell becomes convinced that there is some new kind of terrible person on the loose in the land. 

“People complain about the bad things that happen to em that they don’t deserve but they seldom mention the good. About what they done to deserve them things. I don’t recall that I ever give the good Lord that much cause to smile on me. But he did.” 

Bell reports a home truth gained from his experience. He says that he is a lucky man, particularly in meeting his wife. He has noticed that people notice the bad but forget the good. He does not want to be that way. He wants to remember and focus on the good things. Considering all of the bad things that he has seen in his life, this optimism and gratitude for the good things in his life demonstrate his steady, kind-hearted character. 

“It is community and it is respect, of course, but the dead have more claims on you than what you might want to admit or even what you might know about and them claims can be very strong indeed. Very strong indeed. You get the feelin that they just don’t want to turn loose.”

Bell speaks of the claims of the dead at the beginning of Chapter 5—before any of the main characters have been killed. It is important for the reader to remember that Bell is speaking directly to the reader in retrospect. Therefore, this quotation serves as foreshadowing of the deaths to come and as an indication that the events, and the deaths, depicted in this novel have a hold on Bell and will not let him go easily. He projects upon the dead the inability to let go, when in reality it is he who remains haunted by the events that he reports.

“I’ll tell you somethin, Sheriff. Nineteen is old enough to know that if you have got something that means the world to you it’s all that more likely it’ll get took away. Sixteen was, for that matter. I think about that.” 

Carla Jean explains her love for Llewelyn. She is mature and wise beyond her nineteen years and, like Llewelyn, very intelligent.

“You can’t make a deal with him. Let me say it again. Even if you gave him the money he’d still kill you. There’s no one alive on this planet that’s ever had even a cross word with him. They’re all dead. These are not good odds. He’s a peculiar man. You could even say that he has principles. Principles that transcend money or drugs or anything like that.” 

Carson Wells attempts to get Moss to make a deal with him, and to let him know that Anton Chigurh will kill Moss, no matter what, unless Wells stops him. Because he believes that he’s seen a lot of the evil possible in the world, in Vietnam particularly, Moss thinks that he’s capable of taking on Chigurh. He’s also encouraged by the fact that he did injure Chigurh. Like Bell, Moss cannot comprehend a figure such as Chigurh; this failure to believe in and understand Chigurh’s psychopathic evil costs him and Carla Jean their lives.

“I never worried about her bein safe. They get fresh garden stuff a good part of the year. Good cornbread. Soupbeans. She’s been known to fix em hamburgers and French fries. We’ve had em to come back even years later and they’d be married, and doin good. Bring their wives. Bring their kids even. They didn’t come back to see me. I’ve seen em to introduce their wives or their sweethearts and then just go to bawlin. Grown men. That had done some pretty bad things. She knew what she was doin. She always did.” 

Bell praises the common sense and goodness of his wife, Loretta. He admits that he couldn’t do the job of sheriff without her help. Of course, she offers her husband emotional support and caring. However, her job doesn’t end there. Not only does she feed the prisoners, but she offers them moral and emotional support. So much so that they return to visit with her and show her that they have straightened out their lives, introducing their wives or girlfriends and children. Loretta Bell is revealed to be a remarkable person, not just to Bell, but to others.

You think I’m like you. That it’s just greed. But I’m not like you. I live a simple life.

Just do it.

You wouldn’t understand. A man like you.

Just do it.

Yes, Chigurh said. They always say that. But they don’t mean it, do they?

You piece of shit.

It’s not good, Carson. You need to compose yourself. If you don’t respect me what must you think of yourself? Look at where you are.” 

Chigurh shares part of his personal philosophy just before he kills Carson Wells. He tries to impart this sense of dignity and honor to Wells in order to justify killing him. Wells simply sees him as a murderous psychopath, who got the drop on him. It was always going to be either him or Chigurh. To Wells murder is a game and a competition; to Chigurh, it is a simple code by which he lives his life. 

“Forty years later. Well, here come the answers back. Rape, arson, murder. Drugs. Suicide. Because a lot of the time ever when I say anything about how the world is goin to hell in a handbasket people will just sort of smile and tell me I’m getting old. That it’s one of the symptoms. But my feelin about that is that anybody that can’t tell the difference between rapin and murderin people and chewin gum has got a whole lot bigger of a problem than what I’ve got.” 

Sheriff Bell recounts a school report, comparing teacher’s problems in the 1930s to those 40 years later. The problems in the 1930s amounted to minor offenses such as talking in class or copying homework. The problems teachers report 40 years later are far more serious, and a sign of the problems that Bell faces as a sheriff. It is more evidence, for him, that the world has changed for the worse—that people have changed for the worse.

“And she kept talkin about the right wing this and the right wing that. I aint even sure what she meant by it. . . . She kept on, kept on. Finally told me, said: I don’t like the way this country is headed. I want my granddaughter to be able to have an abortion. And I said well mam I don’t think you got any worries about the way the country is headed. The way I see it goin I don’t have much doubt but what she’ll be able to have an abortion. I’m goin to say that not only will she be able to have an abortion, she’ll be able to have you put to sleep. Which pretty much ended the conversation.”

Sheriff Bell gives his characteristically blunt assessment of the way the world is headed, recounting his conversation with a woman seated next to him at a conference. As a non-political politician, in his role as an elected sheriff, his views of right and wrong seem old-fashioned, but much needed, in his job and in the world.

“They don’t have no respect for the law? That aint half of it. They don’t even think about the law. It don’t seem to even concern em. Of course here a while back in San Antonio they shot and killed a federal judge. I guess he concerned em. Add to that that there’s peace officers along this border getting rich off of narcotics. That’s a painful thing to know. Or it is for me. I don’t believe that was true even ten years ago. A crooked peace officer is just a damned abomination. That’s all you can say about it. He’s ten times worse than the criminal. And this aint goin away.” 

Sheriff Bell tells the truth about the drug dealers and criminals taking over his part of the country. He believes that narcotics and its violent culture will take over the whole country eventually. Most people at this point in 1980 can ignore the drug trade, but soon, as Bell predicts, people, regular people, not just the criminals directly involved in the illegal drug trade, will be affected.

“I think if you were Satan and you were settin around tryin to think up somethin that would just bring the human race to its knees what you would probably come up with it narcotics. Maybe he did.”

Bell puts words to the change that he sees coming over the country: the narcotics trade. All of the sheriffs discuss the drug trade in the course of this investigation. Nobody thinks that the murders have anything to do with anything else. The money to be made turns men cruel and inhumane—disagreements turn into bloodbaths, as the drug massacre in the desert reveals. From beginning to end, Bell predicts that the narcotics trade will bring this country to its knees. Ironically, McCarthy published this novel in 2005, looking back 25 years to 1980. The drug wars of the nineties, the cartels, and the cocaine traffic through Mexico from South America were not in the picture yet, though Bell mentions them to his wife, saying that soon the local boys will all be squeezed out of the drug trade by cartels. However, McCarthy’s look at 1980 is prescient and as apropos to the present day as it is to the time period it depicts.

“He looked at her. Let me tell you somethin, little sister. If there is one thing on this planet that you don’t look like it’s a bunch of good luck walkin around.” 

Moss tries to give good advice and support to the young woman he picks up on the road. He tells her to be careful because there is a lot of bad luck in the world. Moss’s statement is a straightforward foreshadowing of her fate: she is shot to death by the Mexican drug dealer within a few hours.

“I have no enemies. I don’t permit such a thing.” 

Anton Chigurh has no enemies, because he kills them all. This is a simple, direct, and clear statement of his beliefs.

“You wear out Ed Tom. All the time you spend tryin to get back what’s been took from you there’s more goin out the door. After a while you just try and get a tourniquet on it. Your grandad never asked me to sign on as deputy with him. I done that my own self. . . . Anyway, you never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from. I was too young for one war and too old for the next one. But I seen what come out of it. You can be patriotic and still believe that some things cost more than what they’re worth. Ask them Gold Star mothers what they paid and what they got for it. You always pay too much. Particularly for promises. You’ll see. Maybe you done have.” 

Bell’s uncle Ellis gives him life advice. He tells him that it isn’t worth regretting what has happened to him or not happened. He indirectly refers to Bell’s war experience, indicating that, though he is older and has had some terrible things happen to him, he recognizes that being in a war was something he never had to endure. His understanding nature and clear sharing of confidences allows Bell to open up and reveal his own dark secret: that he doesn’t believe he earned the title of war hero because he saved himself when all of his men were killed, instead of holding the position and dying along with them.