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After reading No Country for Old Men and while reading The Grapes of Wrath, there are some similarities I see between the character of Pa in Grapes of Wrath and Ed Tom Bell in No Country for Old Men. While Pa is the leader and the instigator of the journey the Joad family takes to California, he is also somewhat hopeless and losing touch with he true essence of who he is as a person. He begins to drown in his surroundings as his family suffers loss after loss and their dream of a life in California seems farther and farther away. Ed Tom Bell is similar in this way as he watches crime and police work shift to something much more cynical. He feels inadequate to handle the intensity of the uprising of crime in Texas and begins to recede into himself. They are also similar in the way that their growing age is causing them setbacks. They’re finding that they are no longer able to keep up with the lives they lived as younger men. In a way they are both stuck in the past, reminiscing about better times. For Pa this was working on the farm surrounded by family where they had enough money to have food on their table and a roof over their head. For Ed Tom Bell this was an era of crime where he felt he was in control, but as the level of crime rose, he lost control and realized there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Throughout the book, especially in part one, Bell does and excellent job of keeping us updated on what the character is thinking. In part one, We meet Moss, a middle aged veteran, who is very brave. He comes across a truck with dead bodies and two million dollars worth of cash in the truck. Throughout the experience of him stumbling across it and taking it we learn all the thoughts going through the head of Moss. He often questions if he should really go through with this or not which leads him to the decision that he will do it but he know people will die along the way and one of the people dying could definitely be himself. Although death fears him a little he stays strong and is extremely brave. He knows it will all be worth it in the end if he survives because again this is 2 million dollars we are talking about. At this time two million dollars sets you for life and beyond.

pg. 27 “His own shadow was more company than he would have liked. Ugly feeling out here. A trespasser. Among the dead. Dont get weird on me, he said. You aint one of em. Not yet.”

This is just one of the many thoughts Moss had when he was headed back to the truck with the dead people. I believe the author is leading us to assume he’s eventually going to become like these guys because they murder people and he knows people are going to be after him and someone is going to die in the end.

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.

Through the first three soliloquies, I have come to characterize Ed Tom Bell as being thoughtful in his duties. He is willing to act but never acts without thinking. Thoughtfulness is apparent in his recognition of the inherent danger as sheriff, and his continuation with such a job showcases his willingness to act. His decisions regarding his equipment are not made blindly, but rather are characterized by thoughtful comparison and a reliance upon experience.

The purpose of the first three soliloquies is to examine the experiences of Ed Tom Bell and apply them to reach a deeper understanding of the mind of Anton Chigurh, and how law enforcement has come to cope with such criminals. The first soliloquy talks about a deranged young man who killed a girl and admitted that upon release, he would kill again. Bell saw no soul in the man. This was the one and only case in Bell’s time as sheriff where he committed a man to death. This soliloquy gives us comparison for when we are later introduced to Chigurh, as well as an example of how law enforcement deals with minds similar to his. The second soliloquy shows the progression of crime Bell has experienced as sheriff. It comes to a head when we hear of two young men who embarked on a killing spree, leaving Bell to wonder how many cold-blooded killers like this there are, and how we would be able to predict such a prophet of destruction.

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.

A) As one of the main characters in the novel, we learn a lot about Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, especially through his soliloquies at the start of every part. I see Bell as an old man. The stories he tells show that he has a lot of experience within the law and the stories shows us different lessons he’s learned or ideas hes pondered. For example, in the second soliloquy, he tells the story of where he stopped a truck with Coahuila plates. At the end of the story he talks about how dangerous his job is and how you never know what you might come across. This story also shows a slight amount of racial profiling. He stopped the car because it had mexican plates which is racial profiling. This was probably cultivated through is upbringing or experiences on the job with mexican cartel

B) The soliloquies serve two purposes. One to show us more information about Bell. We get more insight into his opinions about the law and his job. We get unique stories about Bell that help develop his character so that we can better understand the actions that he takes throughout the sections. The soliloquies also serve as an intro into each section. For example in the second section, Bell’s soliloquy talks about two men who traveled around the country killing people for what seemed like no good reason. This is probably how Bell feels about Chigurh, who his killing people for what seems like no reason.

McCarthy offers a unique experience with the soliloquies by allowing the reader into the mind of Ed Tom Bell at the start of each part. The soliloquies reveal many layers to Ed Tom Bell’s personality and how he views the world. Bell is a lawman who has struggled with fighting the evil in his town and seems to be growing tired of the never-ending battle. He is very contemplative and appears to think very deeply about his work and the well-being of the town. McCarthy begins the novel with Bell discussing the one time he had to put a criminal to death and how he struggled with the idea of it. This first monologue shows the reader from the beginning what kind of person Bell is.

Additionally, The function of these soliloquies can vary from part to part but generally are meant to give the reader insight on the events surrounding that chapter. Bell is reflecting on past experiences and struggles with his thoughts to tackle the current issues he faces. McCarthy discusses the unsureness Bell faces with his work and how he will deal with the increase of violence in his town. Bell contemplates the criminal mind and the nature of evil. His thoughts resemble and outline the novel’s main themes.

Through the use of soliloquies, Ed Tom Bell is clearly depicted as someone who sees a situation as it is; no padding to the truth, rather just the straight truth. He knew that “you always had to be willin to die to even do this job” (p.4). He knows the risks his job comes with, but he accepts those risks and takes the chance anyway. These soliloquies are used to tell stories of experiences he’s had with criminals. Through his explanations of encounters with different criminals readers can’t help but ask themselves, “how truly unhinged can a human mind become?.”

Most of the time, it seems that Ed Tom Bell either doesn’t know what to do or can’t even begin to figure out the next step in what he should do. He commonly is quoted throughout these soliloquies saying the classic line of, “I don’t know”, showing the internal struggle he has when trying to decide how to approach a situation. Chigurh, for him, is a criminal far beyond human saving; he has no idea how to deal with him. It is starting to become a cycle of Chigurh killing people, and Ed Tom Bell cleaning up his mess, always one step behind him. He constantly is questioning his actions, unsure if he made the correct one or not. The purpose of these soliloquies is to show the constant internal battle that Ed Tom Bell is facing and how this affects his ability to perform his job as a Sheriff and his constant questioning of what humans are truly capable of doing.

Officer Ed Tom Bell is clearly an experienced officer, who has witnessed numerous crimes, and seen into the minds of a myriad of criminals. However, he still has difficulty understanding the minds of those perpetrators as seen in the first soliloquy. And despite his experience, he still considers Chigurh to be some new breed of criminal, a special sort of evil that in all his years Ed Tom Bell has not seen. This begs the question: Is Chigurh a different criminal mind from those Bell has witnessed in the past, and if not, why does Bell perceive it to be so?

Uncertainty is another clear element present within his soliloquies. This comes across both in how he deals with his line of work, but also in his dealings with criminals, especially Chigurh. With every stop, he knows that he is putting his life in danger, but he considers that to be a part of the job. He appears to be a realist, not living in a fantasy of what he wishes to be right. Ed Tom is also uncertain how to interpret and handle Chigurh. He can’t understand Anton, as his brain works in a completely different manner from his own, and so the soliloquies demonstrate the struggle of Ed Tom to attempt to understand, and his failures to do so.

One common theme throughout the soliloquies is Bell’s conflicting ideas about the content of his job changing. He mentions how in an earlier time crimes were much simpler and how over the course of his career the crimes he deals with are getting so extreme that he doesn’t know how to deal with them. Bell’s old age is also apparent when looking at these texts because of his dislike of change and blatant racism. Bell is unprepared to handle chasing Chigurh as he brings a new level of the criminal mind to their small town. He seems to be nervous to confront Chigurh and somewhat apprehensive about going after him. In my opinion Bell brings a sense of humanity to the police force as he is constantly questioning the practices of law enforcement. An example of this is his disapproval and questioning of executions. He’s judgmental of people’s reactions to witnessing an execution and analyses the officer’s personal opinion on executions. During the third section of the soliloquies he finds Moss’ car connecting all three aspects of the story so far. The author uses these soliloquies to make connections between the different characters. So far in the book there has not been a lot of interaction between the main characters so without the soliloquies the text would be much harder to follow.