66 pages • 2 hours read
No Country for Old Men
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Summary and Study Guide
Overview
In No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell investigates a sudden spate of murders in his typically quiet corner of the Texas borderlands. Llewelyn Moss, a Vietnam vet and hunter, gets caught up in the aftermath of a drug-deal gone wrong, and soon both Sheriff Bell and a mysterious hit-man race to be the first to track Moss down: one with the intention of saving his life and the other with the intention of taking it. The novel explores themes of good versus evil, and man’s laws versus moral laws against the backdrop of the Mexican drug wars which began in 1980.
The title of the novel comes from the first line of the poem “Sailing to Byzantium” by William Butler Yeats. The poem comments upon the transitory glories of youth and the flesh and the tragedy of the inevitable fall into old age and death. These themes are also evident in McCarthy’s novel, and are particularly evident in Sheriff Ed Tom Bell’s lamentations—on the eve of his retirement—about the fallen, decayed society he finds himself protecting.
No Country for Old Men also pays homage to several American fiction genres, such as the noir crime fiction of the 1950’s, with its spare Unlock all 66 pages of this Study Guide Plus, gain access to 8,900+ more expert-written Study Guides. Including features:
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