Author: sdailey20

While listening to my dad’s old (although he won’t tell you that it’s old) music with him in the car one day, it gave me inspiration for a curated list: Chigurh’s playlist. So, below I have a few different songs and a short justification as to why I think these would be on his playlist.

1. You don’t mess around with Jim – Jim Croce

This is on the playlist purley because of the name. We learn very quickly in No Country For Old Men not to mess around with Chigurh, since he has really no issue killing anyone at any time. I also feel as if he would be listening to this song on his way to go hunt someone down.

2. Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen

The iconic Queen hit, in my opinion, would for sure be something Chigurh listens to. It has its ups and downs, and the emotions are all over the place. I think he would listen to this or think of this song while he was planning an escape to somewhere, or like in the novel, how to find the briefcase with all of the money.

3. I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor

While at first glance this may not be a song that Chigurh would listen to, I think it would be on his playlist for some odd reason. One of those things where you would be completely thrown a curveball when you find out that this is on his playlist. I think it also speaks to the fact that he truly can not be killed or taken down. Yes, death in inevitable, but he always seems to find a way to come back.

Tommy Lee Jones portraying Ed Tom Bell in the movie adaptation for No Country for Old Men is probably the best thing we all could’ve ever asked for. The entire time we were reading that book as a class, I couldn’t help but picture him as Bell. The way he looks, acts, and carries himself all fit perfectly into that character, and he made the book that was made for the screen ten times better. His quiet yet intimidating demeanor is something that makes that casting even more perfect, since that is not something Tommy Lee Jones is foreign too. While I think that the movie overall did a great job casting all of the characters, Tommy Lee Jones being casted as Ed Tom Bell was my favorite, and something I’m sure others can agree with as well. He’s stern, but has a sweet side to him at the same time, which in my opinion is the biggest part of Bell’s personality. There’s no question that Jones acted well in this film, like he has so many other films as well. At the end of the day, I honestly don’t think I can think of anyone better to play Bell. Such a good casting that I will forever be thankful for.

One day while driving to who knows where, I had my music on shuffle and the song Hollywood’s Bleeding by Post Malone came on, and I couldn’t help but think of The Day of the Locust. In the novel, the painting Tod is curating is called “The burning of Los Angeles,” so right away I compared the names to each other. While the entire book focuses on how distraught Hollywood truly is and how the love life there isn’t what the media makes it out to seem, the song is more focussed on the fact that it’s crumbling, and will continue to due to all of the fake people and materialism that goes on. The lyric that stands out most to me in this song says “dying in our sleep, we’re living out a dream,” which to me says that all of these people had a life long dream of moving to L.A. and becoming some type of stat, but truly had no idea what they were getting themselves into at the time. The line then continues by saying “we only make it out alone.” Re-listening to this, it made me sad by realizing that at the end of the day, Post Maloe is right, and all these people truly have is themselves.

Although many of my peers hated and dreaded reading this book freshman year, To Kill A Mockingbird was easily the best book I read throughout my high school english classes. Describing this book as a classic is appropriate, but in my opinion, is truly one of the greatest American novels of all time. It teaches a lesson of prejudice and unfairness in the judicial system, something that unfortunately is still prevalent to this day, as well as how racism in this country hasn’t gone away whether or not we like to admit it. It makes me sad to think about the fact that some schools are completely taking this out of their curriculum, since I think that it is an essential read for everyone, especially at the high school level. Yes, I understand the fact that the book uses racial slurs that are not acceptable in today’s society, but at the end of the day, it is the biggest lesson the book is trying to teach. It’s telling us these things because they were bad then, and they’re bad as well too! If we as a nation and the future don’t learn about our history and what we did wrong so many years ago, we are bound to repeat it. It’s just that simple.

The theme of fate vs. fortune is one that comes up quite often in No Country for Old Men. The biggest feature of this in the novel is the infamous coin toss scene, when Chigurh is debating with the store clerk––but in reality is just internally arguing––he goes back and forth many times over whether the tiny decisions you make in your everyday life affect your future, or if the universe just has a funny way of figuring things out on its own. While I believe that some decisions you make, such as bigger ones (where you go to college, where you decide to live, who you decide to marry) definitely have an impact on your future, the tiny ones (what you ate today, what you decided to wear today, etc.) have practically no influence on your future. However, the day after we were done reading the book as a class, I got home and my dad was home early from work for some reason. And there he was, on the couch, watching Tommy Lee Jones as Ed Tom Bell in the movie, No Country for Old Men. Coincidence? I’ll let you decide for yourself. I absolutely thought it was freaky coming home to see that just playing on TV after such a big discussion piece was about fate vs. fortune.

While reading the novel “Revolutionary Road,” I find myself afterwards scared for marriage and pretty much every relationship to come after this point. The theme of April and Frank being unhappy in their current lives after marriage with kids is something so prevalent in this book, and it honestly has me questioning my whole life. Do I want to have kids anymore? Do I want to get married and live in the suburbs with a golden retriever or two? I understand that kids bring joy into many parents’ lives, but are also a lot to take care of. I also understand the fact that April and Frank didn’t plan their lives to go like this, but that could happen to anyone at the end of the day. People’s lives change everyday due to little things, most of which are inevitable. My whole life I have dreamed of having kids someday, but if I am truly going to change as a person in almost every aspect of my life for that, maybe I don’t want it. Just the thought of being that unhappy makes me scared for the future, but at the end of the day everything is going to be ok, right?

While no one really likes seeing a character in a movie or book die, I believe that many great books have some form of tragedy in them, including All the King’s Men. While Willie Stark’s death was tragic and unfortunate, it was drama and a climax everyone reading the novel needed. It was sad to see when I read about Willie’s death, since he truly had a rags to riches story. An “American dream” if you will. You don’t usually hear about those types of stories in the real world, which is why I was so happy for him when I learned that he came from a poor upbringing. However, Willie did not handle some situations in the book well, and didn’t always treat his staff––such as Jack, the narrator––with respect and kindness. The cause for his death was also the fact that he cheated on his wife, and some people could no longer trust him. While his death is conflicting since he wasn’t a great person but his rise to fame is a story that everyone loves, it was unfortunate that he was murdered. When I read it, I wasn’t very surprised and somewhat saw it coming, but it was still sad that one of the main character’s story had to end like that. Due to Willie’s death, Jack gets out of the world of politics and we soon find out that he never ends up going back. I honestly don’t blame him for doing that. He probably had too much trauma not only working for Willie and finding out everything else about the other candidates, but trauma from his untimely death as well.

Throughout my time reading All the King’s Men, one thing that has surprised me is how similar the relationships were back then compared to today. While this may sounds dumb and like a really small thing, I can’t help but think back to my last blog on this book and think how similar lives were now compared to back then, and I honestly had no idea. Willie Stark, the main character, has a wife named Lucy Stark, but has at least one mistress. I say “at least one” because I wouldn’t be surprised if he had more. While this isn’t super relative to the plot line, I couldn’t help but compare it to politics after the 1930s when this took place, and even today. The first thing that came to mind when I heard about the mistress, the first thing I thought of was president JFK while he was in office. While Willie isn’t president of the United States, it still brought my mind to the whole scandal where he was allegedly cheating on Jackie with Marilyn Monroe. That was such a big deal at the time to the country, because this president they all had grown to love and know was supposedly cheating on his wife and mother of his kids with the biggest celebrity of the time. After I made this connection, I realized that politics at any level, in pretty much every time frame, goes way beyond the issues present at that time. It’s scary to now think about what we don’t know about so many politicians, but they’ll do whatever it takes to cover that up so they can win.

By Sydni Dailey

While continuing to read Robert Warrens All the King’s Men, I couldn’t help but think of the comparison to today’s politics. While the novel takes place in the 1930s, so many things about what happens behind the scenes in the political world are similar to today. Willie, the main character who is running for governor, asks Jack, his right hand man, to “find dirt” on his opponents and those who endorse them. Willie wants anything possible to hold against his opponents and possibly swing their voters to his side. In today’s politics whether it be during a debate or on social media between candidates or those who endorse them, everyone is trying to shame the other one. It’s the biggest part of being in that game, in my opinion. While politics should be more so focused on what each candidate believes and how they would help their country for the better, it has always been about who is the better person deep down and what they’ve done in their past. It’s scary that the political world is like this, but at the end of the day it’s very harsh and hard to work in. You have to have really thick skin to work in politics, which––so far––Jack has. While I’m not quite halfway through the book, I have a good feeling that he will be a good right hand man for Willie during his political career. However, with that being said, I also have a weird feeling that Jack will have something to do with the climax and possibly end up on willie’s bad side when all is said and done.

By Sydni Dailey

It is clear to see that even from reading only a little bit of Robert Penn Warren’s “All the King’s Men,” how talented of a writer he is. Although some of his sentences can go on for multiple lines of a page, he definitely has a writing style that––in my opinion––is similar to Steinbeck. I am not quite one third of the way done with the book yet, but the time frame to me so far is very interesting. The book is set in the last 1930’s, which means that the country as a whole was trying to work their way out of the Great Depression. Willie Stark, or commonly referred to as “The Boss” by the narrator, you can tell is a wealthy man from the beginning. Everyone pretty much everywhere Willie and his crew go knows who he is and what he does. Some see him as a celebrity. What I love about Penn choosing to have a narrator’s point of view over Willie’s is the fact that the narrator is close to Willie, but obviously can’t see inside of his head and think what he’s thinking. His opinions of all the characters are unbiased for the most part, which is nice since we don’t know what the characters think of themselves, but rather how a friend sees them. I think this will be a useful way of telling the story later on in the book, especially towards the climax to make sure that most of the main characters opinion’s aren’t shared to sway the story one way or another.