Ed Tom Bell

My perception of Ed Tom Bell is that even though he’s a sheriff of a the town and seems like the good guy in the story, he’s still battling his own demons and is almost working through these in the soliloquies as well as he’s struggling to keep up in the current day and reminiscence about the past in these soliloquies. In chapter 3 and 4 it shows a bit how he is almost stuck in the past. Chapter 3 is shown where he fails to adapt to the new technology and doesn’t want it, and then says a bit how the old technology is better. He even reminisces about how the old sheriffs didn’t even have to carry guns. I think McCarthy decided to include this in the text for us to learn a bit more about how Ed Tom Bell is thinking mentally and how he’s battling to try to keep up with the Anton as well as the new times. And then this would also relate to how the title is No Country For Old Men, as the country is leaving Ed Tom Bell behind.