Ed Tom Bell does not seem to be a fan of all the aspects of being a sheriff. Bell is content with a small town sheriff job where most cop calls end with a fist fight or an arrest. However, when the small town has a series of violent murderous cases, Bell conveys the idea that he is in a danger zone. In the third soliloquy Bell states that he does not know how to handle the situation with Chigurh because he has never had to deal with a murder on a killing spree. Bell sticks to his set of morals throughout the soliloquies and tries to avoid death to the best of his ability. This is exemplified in the first soliloquy, Bell does not enjoy the idea of putting the boy to death and he wrestles with the decision years later.
I think that McCarthy includes the soliloquies to give another point of view. The book is based from two insights the criminals and the cops; by providing insight into the two viewpoints he can create two story lines around the same plot. The soliloquies also tell the reader that each character lives by there own set of morals and the soliloquies compares Chigurh’s morals to Bell’s morals.
Great American Novels 
2 replies on “Ed Tom Bell Soliloquies”
I think highlighting the fact that Ed Tom Bells’ morals are a lot different than Chigurhs morals is an important aspect to go into deeper thought on. Ed Tom Bell and Chigurh are considered opposites in every way of life in this novel, and Ed Tom Bell believes justice, the court system, and that people that do good should get good sometime in their life, and that there are consequences for your actions. Chigurh believes in fate and only fate. But his belief of fate goes to extreme measures in the novel, and become more dark and violent as the novel goes on
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Yes I definitely thought Ed Tom Bell’s soliloquies added a whole new aspect that you don’t always get in other novels. It allowed the readers to see a sheriff’s deeper fears. So I agree that you need the two different insights and McCarthy uses the soliloquies as a way to portray the difficulties, especially morally, that the police deal with not only with drug cartels in the 80s but at any point in time. I think that McCarthy was trying to make a statement about morals and fate through Chigurh and Bell so next to the action filled scenes, the soliloquies would slow the novel down enough to display McCarthy’s message.
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