Ed Tom Bell

My perception of the novel’s Sheriff Ed Tom Bell is that he is a longtime sheriff that has arrested and dealt with many different criminals during his career. Because of this, Ed Tom Bell is really a storyteller, he tells his stories in both the soliloquies and the main narrative. He narrates his soliloquies in the same tone as his character in the text. The purpose of the soliloquies I think are two-fold. On one hand, Ed Tom Bell is almost foreshadowing the chapter ahead. In his soliloquy in chapter one, Ed Tom Bell says “Somewhere out there is a true and living prophet of destruction and I don’t want to confront him.” On the very next page, Chigurh kills the Ed Tom Bell’s deputy without any thought of remorse. The second reason is to show more insight into Ed Tom Bell’s life and experience. In the second soliloquy Ed Tom Bell talks about his run in with criminals in the past, providing us with insights of how Ed Tom Bell will react in future chapters, and in the third, he talks about firearms and his opinions on them, as guns seem a fairly major motifs present in the novel.