Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men:
What Money Can Do to A Man Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel, No Country for Old Men follows the story of three characters: Anton Chigurh, Llewelyn Moss and Sheriff Ed Tom Bell. Anton Chigurh is the main antagonist and can be described as a “psychopathic killer” (McCarthy 115). Anton Chigurh kills just about everybody he comes in contact with, but at times he might give them a second chance by letting a coin toss decide their fate. He is a ruthless killer who triumphs over everybody and is even given the nickname “The invincible Mr Chigurh” (McCarthy 115). In fact, Anton Chigurh has killed so many people that he is compared to the bubonic plague. Llewelyn Moss is a welder and Vietnam veteran who…show more content… People have different principles that they hold high for themselves. For example, in No Country for Old Men, Llewelyn Moss is a man with contradicting principles. When he first stumbles upon the site of the shooting, he finds a man on the verge of death asking for water. He did not have any water to spare the man so he continued on until he found the case of money and then leaves. However, later that night Moss returns with a “waterjug” (McCarthy 23) for the dying man. It is quite remarkable that Moss is fine with taking 2.4 million dollars for himself instead of reporting it to the police. Yet, he gallantly risks his life to bring a dying man water. When he returns to site he even says to himself “You dumb-ass… Here you are. Too dumb to live.” (McCarthy 23) He acknowledges that it was a foolish mistake to return to the scene of the crime, but he did it anyways. Such as in Guy de Maupassant’s The Necklace Monsieur and Madame Loisel’s lack of principle ends up ruining 10 years of their life. Madame Loisel borrows a necklace from Madame Forestier to attend a party. Unfortunately Madame Loisel loses the necklace and now she and her husband buy a replacement without telling Madame Forestier and spend the next 10 years struggling to pay the necklace which costs 36 thousand francs. At the end of the story Madame Loisel finds out that the original necklace was an imposter and only cost 500 francs.
