The Meaning of Violence in No Country for Old Men As is true of most of Cormac McCarthy's novels, No Country for Old Men is full of scenes of violence. This novel, set in the chaotic and lawless borderland between Texas and Mexico, opens with the murder of a police officer by a psychopathic criminal named Anton Chigurh. A bloody and failed drug deal immediately follows. While descriptions of McCarthy's violence are numerous, the violence is not gratuitous. Rather, the scenes of violence serve literary purposes. Violence is used to create the ominous atmosphere and dark setting of the novel, portray the conflict between the novel's characters, and depict a changing world in which evil threatens to destroy the virtue and goodness of humanity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Cormac McCarthy creates the ominous atmosphere and setting of the novel through his frequent use of violence. Texas, where the novel is set, is historically known as the Wild West. Before Texas became a state, justice was administered by cowboys rather than courts. Likewise, the contemporary setting in which the novel is set is also characterized by lawlessness, but in a more modern sense. Drug dealers roam and the violence that often comes from the illegal drug trade is always threatening. There is a desperate, primitive feeling of a vast, barren land where men hunt each other. At the beginning of the novel, Llewellyn Moss's character is hunting deer when he comes across a horrific scene of carnage in which a drug deal had clearly been foiled. Men and dogs are shot to death, cars are riddled with bullets and there is blood everywhere. Moss finds a suitcase full of money and takes it. The next day, the drug dealers hunt him down. After a violent firefight and a chase scene, Moss escapes. McCarthy’s early descriptions of the empty landscape add to the ominous atmosphere and foreshadow violence: “Where he crested, the country lay flat, stretching south and east. Red earth and creosote. Mountains in the distance and middle distance. Nothing out there. Warmth shimmer. (p. 26-27) This vast and menacingly barren landscape provides the perfect stage on which violence will erupt. There are no borders and there are no rules. Other acts of violence are described early on by Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, which help create a mood and context of a violent community. Sheriff Bell's first-person narrative, which precedes each chapter, reflects on the rise and nature of violent crime and describes the acts directed against him. Just one example of Bell's concern about escalating violence is demonstrated in his statement that "the old boy opened up to me two more times and shot out all the glass on the side of the car... the point it's that you don't know what you're doing" stop when you stop someone... you don't know what you might find (p.39) This is a country where the rules are not clearly defined and violence, as well as the threat of violence, are." always present. Violence drives the story forward and brings the main characters into conflict with each other. The novel is essentially a terrifying series of violent acts in which Anton Chigurh hunts and kills, sometimes without a clear purpose novel is that Chigurh recovers the money that Moss took and takes revenge "just for bothering him" (pg.150) Chigurh would never be satisfied alone.