a) Within Bell’s Soliloquies, the reader is opened to a side to him that we can’t see from other characters in the novel. In his first soliloquy, he reveals his fear of the living prophet of destruction. It shows a vulnerable side of him which shows a fear that accompanies him throughout his career as a sheriff. Later in his second soliloquy, he points out how you never know what you are going to come across in his field and it shows how he lives within his fear of coming across a man of destruction at any moment. It shows that even though he seems fearless by facing his fear everyday, everyone has worries that people may not realize. It reveals that even as the Sheriff, Bell can feel exposed as well and this idea of a person of destruction could foreshadow to events later in the novel.
b) I think McCarthy adds these soliloquies to add a depth to the story and the culture behind it. Through Bell’s perspective, the readers can understand the culture of police officers in general in Texas in the 1980’s along with their run ins with the Mexican drug cartel. Bell offers an insight on the dangers of the country and the psychological burdens of seeing so much crime and he discusses some dehumanization in the process of exterminating criminals. As an officer facing so many people with unmoral intentions, they are exposed to different views to the world that few people could ever imagine.
Great American Novels 