The existentialist motif of despair in McCarthy’s “No Country for Old Men”: new darkness and old hopes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.28925/2311-259x.2023.3.3Keywords:
Cormac McCarthy, American literature, existentialism, existentialist motifs, despairAbstract
The article considers McCarthy’s novel No Country for Old Men from the perspective of the existentialist motif of despair in the characters’ network. Being philosophical in nature, the book raises existential questions of the value of human life and the purpose of human existence. The subject of the study is the existentialist motif of despair. The problem is the peculiarities of representation of this existentialist motif in modern literature. The aim of the study is to explore the literary representation of the existentialist motif of despair in No Country for Old Men. The applied methods include close reading, which serves for the identification of the motif of despair in the novel, and character analysis, which helps examine the main characters’ experiences of despair and reveal their psychological and emotional responses to the existential challenges they face. The novelty of the study lies in offering a fresh perspective on the analysis of the novel in the context of existentialist motifs, especially the motif of despair.
The results of the study show that in No Country for Old Men the existentialist motif of despair arises from the awareness of the inherent meaninglessness and absurdity of existence. The main characters constantly experience despair because the society they live in is devoid of meaning and is ruled by cruelty, which reveals profound changes of modern civilization. The protagonists belong to diverse generations and differ in their positions and ways of thinking, but they share a common experience of descending into the depths of despair at some point of their lives. The despair that they feel is caused by the changes that society undergoes. These transformations, also on the global scale, provoke alteration in the ethical norms engendering a pervasive sense of dissonance and moral ambiguity. The characters seem to assume that violence becomes necessary for survival, since justice proves its insufficiency, money and drugs take a leading place and substitute religion, and the value of human life deteriorates. The world seems absurd and devoid of meaning; however, the protagonists desperately try to find their path through the darkness and struggle to uncover meaning and authenticity in a seemingly indifferent and chaotic world.
Downloads
References
Cant, J. (2008). Cormac McCarthy and the Myth of American Exceptionalism. Routledge.
Dorson, J. (2017). Cormac McCarthy and the Genre Turn in Contemporary Literary Fiction. European Journal of American Studies. 12 (12-3). https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.12291
Ellis, J. (2009). Fetish and Collapse in No Country for Old Men. In H. Bloom (Ed.), Cormac McCarthy. Bloom’s Modern Critical Views (pp. 133–170). Infobase Publishing.
Frye, S. (2009). Understanding Cormac McCarthy. University of South Carolina Press.
Hacht, A. M. (ed.). (2015). A study guide for Cormac McCarthy’s “No Country for Old Men”. Literary Newsmakers for Students. Gale Cengage Learning.
Kamiu, A. (2015). Mif pro Sizifa [The Myth of Sisyphus]. Portfel.
Kierkegaard, S. (1941). The Sickness unto Death. Princeton University Press.
Lincoln, K. (2009). Cormac McCarthy: American Canticles. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230617841
Mangrum, B. (2011). Democracy, Justice, and Tragedy in Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men. Religion & Literature, 43.3, 107–133.
Marandi, S. M., Pishosta, H. &Tari, Z. (2018). Frontiersman’s Identity in Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men: A Contrapuntal Reading. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies, 6(4), 49–57.
McCarthy, C. (2007). No Country for Old Men. Picador.
Monk, N. (2016). True and Living Prophet of Destruction: Cormac McCarthy and Modernity. UP of New Mexico.
Proulx, A. (2005). Gunning for trouble. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/oct/29/featuresreviews.guardianreview16
Sartre, J-P. (2007). Existentialism is a Humanism. Yale University Press. https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300242539
Stembkovska, H. (2014). No Country for Old Men Kormaka Makkarti: pro pockubky hrandioznosti [McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men: about an Error of Grandeur]. Amerykanski literaturni studii v Ukraini. Materialy mizhnarodnoho sympoziumu, 8, 271–276.
Webber, J. (2018). Rethinking Existentialism. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198735908.001.0001
Yeats, W. B. (1983). Sailing to Byzantium. In R. J. Finnerman (Ed.), The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (pp. 193–194). Collier Books.
Zhluktenko, N. (2014). “Starym tut ne mistse” sproba kontekstnoho analizu [No Country for Old Men. An Attempt of Contextual Analysis]. Amerykanski literaturni studii v Ukraini. Materialy mizhnarodnoho sympoziumu, 8, 266–270.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Ірина Качур
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
