Chapter 2 and 3 of No Country for Old Men

The plot of the novel really starts to pick up in these two chapters.  We are finally given the sheriff's name, Ed Tom Bell.  Bell actually plays more of a roll in these chapters too.  Instead of just sitting around his office or retelling stories of his past, he gets involved in the story.  Himself and one of his deputies go to investigate a car fire and stumble upon the murder scene during their investigation.  They instantly recognize Moss' truck.  Once I found out that they knew it was Moss' truck I wondered how involved they thought he was or if he was even involved.  The deputy said that Moss seemed like a nice guy.  I think it will be interesting to see how seriously they pursue Moss as a suspect.

Moss is busy in these chapters as well.  He has to send his girlfriend away to a relatives house because he figures it is too dangerous for either one of them to stay in their trailer.  Moss then proceeds to rent a motel room.  This room allows Moss to hide the money deep inside of the air duct.  He also uses the room to make modifications to a shotgun he bought.  Moss cuts off a large portion of the barrel and the stock, essentially making it a pistol grip shotgun.  I thought it was strange of Moss to go to the store and buy random items such as pliers and tent poles.  I'm curious to see how he will use those.

Moss' actions could seem a little frightening to some readers.  All of his actions seem pretty well thought out.  This led me to question his motives.  Why didn't he just go away with his girlfriend?  Why risk getting tracked down?  If I were in his shoes I would get out of town as soon as possible.

The audience knows that Llewelyn is a veteran.  Perhaps that explains why he is so calculated about what he is doing.  Most people would not automatically go to the store and buy the materials to make a sawed off shotgun.  There is also a reference to a claymore mine, which he would be very familiar with since he was in the military.  Part of me wonders if he is out looking for a little trouble.

Anton Chigurh isn't as brutal as we've seen before in these chapters.  He shows a different side to him though.  A smart determined side.  Before reading these pages the audience might have thought that Chigurh was just a brutal person and lacked much sense, but some of his actions prove otherwise.

When Anton goes to the crime scene he discovers Moss' truck.  Even though the license plate is gone, Anton is smart enough to take the identification plate from the door.  Chigurh then shows up at Moss' trailer a few pages later.  This must mean that somehow Chigurh was able to use the plate to look up Moss' address.

I think it will be interesting to see if Chigurh finally catches up to Moss and if Moss is ready if he does.

Chapter 1 No Country for Old Men

In the first chapter of No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy the audience is briefly introduced to a  sheriff.  We are not told much about the sheriff, not even his name.  However a little information can be pulled from the sheriff's narration.  He tells us that he has been a sheriff for many years, but one criminal scares him more than any other.  The sheriff tells a story of a 19 year old boyfriend who murdered his own 14 year old girlfriend.  The sheriff seems to be frightened by this man because of his lack of remorse.  The boyfriend admits that he killed her and that if he had the chance he would do it again.

From this experience the sheriff realizes that the job may require more than he is willing to give.  He always knew that the job required him to risk his life, but now he thinks that he might need to risk his soul, something he is not okay with.

After the sheriff is introduced comes Chigurh.  The first interaction the audience has with Chigurh is him killing a guard in a police station.  The murder is quite brutal, but Chigurh seems to be unaffected by the act he has just committed.  This lack of feeling continues when he kills another person on the highway in order to steal their car.  I think these acts show the audience that Chigurh is a strong character.  Chigurh seems to lack the normal emotions of most people.  Chigurh also seems smart because he knows exactly how to get what he wants and to carry out his plans with great accuracy.

The next character that is introduced to the audience is Llewelyn Moss.  Moss is first shown hunting out in the floodplains.  After an unsuccessful trip Moss comes across a crime scene.  He has two choices, leave or stay.  Even though he knows nothing good will come from staying he can't make himself leave.  Moss investigates the vehicles and people involved in an apparent drug deal gone wrong.  After looking around for a while, Moss finds a brief case with a large sum of money in it.  Once again he has two options, take it or leave it.  He decides to take the money and leave.

When he wakes up the next afternoon Moss feels as if he needs to take water to a man at the crime scene.  Despite his mind telling him it's a bad idea, he goes anyway.  Upon returning to the scene he finds that there are other people there who seem to be looking for something or someone.  He immediately knows that they are looking for the money he stole.  Moss has no choice but to try and run and hide from them.  That's as far as the first chapter takes us in the story.

Moss is an interesting character because he has elements of good and evil in him.  At first he seems like a typical southern guy, just out doing a little hunting, but when he makes the decision to investigate the crime scene he starts down a bad road.  Investigating the scene isn't necessarily bad, most people would probably be curious, but when he starts to poke around the vehicles and finds the stash of drugs and money he makes questionable decisions.  The fact that he takes the automatic weapon and the cash shows me that maybe he isn't as good as first thought.  He might have a dark side to him.  Why would he want to get himself involved in a crime?

I think it will be interesting to see if Moss escapes from the guys trying to get their money back and if Chigurh continues his killing spree.

Response to "High Windows"

The poem "High Windows" by Philip Larkin describes an older man (at least 60) who ponders the life of two kids when he sees them.  His first thought when he sees the couple is that they are "fucking".  In my opinion this is a strange and dark first thought about two people.  There are many other thoughts that might come to mind other than thinking about their private life.  This one opinion shapes the rest of the poem.

He goes on to say that "I know this is paradise everyone old has dreamed of all their lives."  Then he talks about how this "paradise" is free of "bonds and gestures" and how the young couple is going down a "long slide to happiness."

After talking about the slide he thinks back to his own life and says "I wonder if anyone looked at me, forty years back and thought that'll be the life."  Then to end the poem he talks about "high windows" and "deep blue air, that shows nothing."

What I take away from this poem is that the man is looking at the kids in a longing way.  He wishes that he could go back to his younger days when life was not as complicated.  The fact that he talks about "bonds and gestures pushed to one side like an outdated combine harvester" leads me to that conclusion.  The bonds and gestures are symbols of the commitments he now has in his life.  He sees how free the kids' lives seems to be.

I found the reference to the slide interesting because he describes it as an endless slide TO happiness.  He does not say it is a long slide OF happiness.  What good is a long slide to happiness?  Wouldn't most people want a short slide to happiness?  And if the slide is endless what good is it?  The riders will never reach the happiness they desire.  This could be what the poem is trying to tell us.  I think the poem wants the reader to see how good life was in their younger days and how confusing and stressful their lives are now that they are older.

Response to "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"

The short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin is a story about freedom and the cost to be free.  The citizens of Omelas are in many ways as free as they can be.  They have no government. They have religion, but no clergy.  The audience is told that they are not "simple folk" and that they are "not dulcet shepherds, noble savages."  The citizens live in what seems to be a perfect utopia.

The audience is led to believe in this perfect utopia until a child is introduced.  The child is kept in solitude in a dark basement and holds the key to the rest of the utopian societies freedom.  Without the child the "happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships" would cease to exist.  

As the title suggests there are people who walk away from this lavish lifestyle.  The audience is never told why they leave though.  It is possible that the people leave to escape the guilt they feel from imprisoning the young child or they may leave because they know they are not really free.  Leaving will not solve the problem though.  If the people leave without doing anything then they are just as selfish as the ones who stay.

An interesting question is brought about when thinking about this situation: Is it ok to sacrifice one person so that a society can enjoy a better lifestyle or would it be better for everyone's lifestyle to be lowered so that no one person is better than the next?  If we look back at history we will find that races or genders have often times been suppressed.  The people suppressing them feel as if their new lifestyle is worth the weight that the suppressed must bear.

I personally think the people who walk away do it out of guilt and in order to escape living a lie.  I think they want to help the child, but don't want to ruin it for everyone else.  By just walking away into the unknown at least they aren't contributing to the child's pain.

Response to "The School"

After reading "The School" by Donald Barthelme for the first time I really didn't know what to think.  The story is a little confusing because there are some many questions that could be asked.

The story is basically tells of a class that adopts many forms of life, from plants, to animals, to children in foreign countries.  The common theme between all of them is that they all die, no matter how the class cares for them.

As a reader I find this subject to be very strange.  I don't understand why someone would write about a class of students who keep failing at their goals.  School is supposed to be a place where students are educated, whether it be in math, english, art, etc...  I guess in a way the students are learning to take on responsibility and to keep trying.  The fact that they take on so many projects is admirable and even when the last project fails they waste no time finding another one to work on.

Despite the strong theme of death, there is life in the story.  Towards the end of the story the students ask a thought provoking question about life.  After the question they beg the teacher to "make love" with the assistant.  This embrace seems to bring the students to life.  Perhaps seeing that love truly exists made them happy.

One aspect of the story that I pondered about was what age the children are.  I first thought that they were young, maybe fourth to sixth grade.  All of the animals they adopt led me to that conclusion.  However when I got towards the end of the story and the students asked the question "is death that which gives meaning to life" I reconsidered my first guess.  Would students that young really be able to understand and formulate that question?  I honestly don't think so.  That kind of thinking is quite mature and would take a lot of life experience to understand.

Response to "This Is Just To Say"

In the poem entitled "This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams the person writing the poem explains to the audience that he/she have eaten the plums that were being saved in the icebox.  The author does not tell the reader why he/she decided to eat them, but goes on to explain how delicious the plums were.

One of the most obvious aspects of the poem is the lack of punctuation or weird capitalization.  The author uses no punctuation.  This fact makes the poem seem like a series of thoughts rather than a well thought out poem.  The weird capitalization occurs because the beginning of each line is not capitalized.  The only two words that are capitalized are "I" and "Forgive".  I think the capitalization of "Forgive" is most significant because in the poem it seems as if the author is asking the reader for forgiveness.  The author knows that the reader was saving the plums, but decided to go ahead and eat all of them.  It's strange however that the author is asking for forgiveness for eating all the plums, when he/she could have just had one or two, not all of them.

The last stanza makes me believe that the author might not actually care about what the reader thinks because he/she goes on to describe how they taste.  The fact that he/she does this seems mean and rude.  If somebody ate my food I would not want them to tell me how good it tasted.  It would just make me more angry.