No Country for Old Men by Cormic McCarthy - Essay Example

Dystopia can also be described as a life of unfavorable circumstance. First, Llewelyn Moss finds and steals the drug dealers’ $2,000,000 cash from the crime scene, being at the wrong place (Rio Grande) at the wrong time, after the drug battle (McCarthy 3). Consequently, the life of Llewelyn Moss is life is filled with unfavorable circumstances. The entire story focuses on Moss trying to evade being forced to return the drug dealer’s money. The story shows the disadvantages of being pulled in the dangerous and short-lived life within the drug trade.

Moss is forced to persuade his young wife, Carla Jean Moss, to pack up her bags and hide in far away Odessa in order to avoid being held as the drug dealers’ hostage (McCarthy 28). Unfortunately, Moss is unsuccessful. Chigurh kills Carla Moss. Sheriff Bell warns Carla the drug dealers will find and kill her husband for stealing their drug money (McCarthy 67). Further, the story shows that dystopia claims another victim, Sheriff Bell. Sheriff Bell is unsuccessful in protecting Moss from being killed by people who are after the drug money.

Sheriff Bell is not able to prevent Chigurh’s killing Carla Moss (McCarthy 144). Consequently, despair prompts Sheriff Bell to retire and drift into dreamland. The entire novel’ dystopia character is grounded on retrieving the drug money from the thief, Llewelyn Moss (Spurgeon 75). Additionally, the novel is one of McCarthy’s many war-based novels. McCarthy’s favorite wars include the Mexican-American War, Mexican Revolution, and World War 2. McCarthy’s other novels include the Blood Meridian and the Border Trilogy.

Both Sheriff Bell and LLewelyn Moss are war veterans (Hage 121). Further, the author brings to life the effect of dystopia on different characters. The author fits the evil forces against the good forces. The story ends with the evil forces triumphant over the good forces, characteristic of dystopia. One good force, Sheriff Bell, unsuccessfully prevents the death of the one good character, Moss. Sheriff Bell did not prevent the killing of Carla Moss. Llewelyn Moss is another good character. As a finder’s keeper person, Llewelyn Moss was innocently dragged into the drug world.

Moss ends up killed by other Mexicans trying to grab the drug money from Moss (McCarthy 63). Mario Raff reiterated that Moss is the hero or good person in the novel, since Anton Chigurh is depicted as the villain for strangling a police officer (2). A third good person, Carla Moss, is an innocent victim of the drug world. By being the wife of Moss, Carla is targeted by the drug syndicates. Carla Moss losses her life at the hands of the drug dealer’s hitman, Anton Chigurh (McCarthy 144). With reduced capital, there would be lesser drugs smuggled through the borders of Mexico (Spurgeon 75).

Furthermore, the bad characters are triumphant in the novel. Chigurh, drug dealer hitman, successfully recovers the money from the apartment of Moss. The author brings out Chigurh’s philosophy where there are no right decisions or wrong decisions, just plain decisions needed to be made based on each unique situation (Raff 6). The drug dealers recover the money from Moss. The author espouses that evil can triumph over good (Spurgeon 75). Moreover, the author sprinkles the novel with a dystopia (misfortune) tone.

Dystopia focuses on sad, failure or loss hovering over the novel’s good forces. For example, Moss ends up dead in the