Book Comparison

No Country For Old Men and The Grapes of Wrath

To start off both books have similar country settings, No Country for Old Men takes place down in a barren part of Texas by the border, while The Grapes of Wrath takes place in the panhandles of Oklahoma as the Joad family moves west across the desolated south western part of the US. On a character aspect, Ed Tom Bell and Pa are quite similar, they both come from an older generation when times were much simpler. During the Joad journey, Pa quickly wears out and hands the role of the leader of the family down to Tom. Ed Tom Bell is worn down as a sheriff thinking about retiring because his job has very much turned into a young man’s game; both characters realize that they are not youthful enough to continue their previous life roles. In each challenge that characters face in both books, they refuse to accept defeat. In No Country for Old Men, Moss fights until his death, and never once believes that he will die at the hands of Chirguh, which leads to the death of Carla Jean, but nonetheless, he never gives up. In The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family never gives up, despite every setback during their journey, every person that tells them not to go to California, they continue on.