The Significance of Violence in No Country for Old Men Anonymous 11th Grade

The Significance of Violence in No Country for Old Men As is true with most of Cormac McCarthy’s novels, No Country for Old Men is replete with scenes of violence. This novel, which is set in the chaotic and lawless borderland between Texas and Mexico, opens with the murder of a police officer by a psychopath criminal named Anton Chigurh. A bloody and failed drug deal immediately follows. Although McCarthy’s descriptions of violence are numerous, the violence is not gratuitous. Rather, the scenes of violence serve literary purposes. Violence is used to create the menacing mood and dark setting of the novel, portray conflict between the novel’s characters, and represent a changing world where evil threatens to destroy mankind’s virtue and goodness.

Cormac McCarthy creates the novel’s ominous mood and setting through his frequent use of violence. Texas, where the novel takes place, is historically known as the Wild West. Before Texas became a state, justice was administered by cowboys rather than courts. Similarly, the contemporary setting in which the novel takes place is also one of lawlessness but in a more modern sense. Drug dealers roam and the violence that often comes with illegal drug trading is always threatening. There...