At the beginning of each part of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country For Old Men, he chooses to stray from the plot line a little bit and give the reader a look into Ed Tom Bell––the sheriff in the town in Texas that they live in––and his life and upbringing. During the soliloquy at the beginning of part 4, the reader finds out that Bell’s grandfather used to be the sheriff, but his father wasn’t. Although there is a generation between him and his grandfather, he mentions that his grandfather would be proud of him, and that they would make a good team. I think McCarthy includes this to tell the reader how seriously Bell takes his job and how proud he is to have the job he does. My perception of Ed Tom Bell through these intros is that he has seen a lot of violence, but hasn’t committed a lot of violence himself. He seems like the type of person to be better than that, and not get into too much trouble unless he has to do something like that for his job. I think the main reason for McCarthy including these intros at the beginning of each part is to give the readers a break from the action-filled story line, but I also think the soliloquies are soon going to connect to the main story line in some way or another. Ed Tom Bell has started to come into the scene a little bit more each chapter, so I think McCarthy is going to tie them together somehow.
Categories
Great American Novels 