No Country for Old Men
There is a new kind of crime in the world, big money and violence on a new scale. But this new violence is only a symptom of the loss of the old values. Sheriff Bell embodies the old values; honesty, courage, loyalty and commitment to law and order. This is no country for old men because their old values don’t work in this new world Settings Bell is Sheriff of a small town called Sanderson, Texas. This rural world of good country people is invaded by a massacre of a drug deal gone badly. “This county has not had an unsolved homicide in forty-one years.
Now we got nine of ’em in one week. ” p. 216. Chigurh represents a new kind of violence that’s never been seen here before. Sheriff Bell spends the movie tracking both Chigurh and Llewelyn, hoping to capture Chigurh and save Llewelyn in the process. Character chosen: Sheriff Bell Sheriff Bell is the central character. Bell is an aging country sheriff who during his long career as a lawman always has tried to do his job with honesty and commitment. In the first-person sections of the book, he reflects on his life and expresses his feelings and beliefs about the present time in the U. S. In the monologues, the laments he makes about his own inability to cope with the present, he generalizes into statements about the whole country. The country has degenerated. It is no country for old men, not only in the sense of age, but for the men of the old values. As he tells a reporter: “It starts when you begin to overlook bad manners. Any time you quit hearing Sir and Mam the end is pretty much in sight. ” p. 304. What Bell expresses in his monologues is enacted in the story narrated in the 18 sections: He is defeated.
All of his efforts to save Moss and his wife Carla Jean from the Mexicans and Chigurh fail and ends up by resigning as Sheriff. As we follow Sheriff Bell, we see a growing fatigue and the violence he follows begins to weigh on him. And the root of the problem is that Bell can’t understand all the violence that he is witnessing. The evil he finds in others, is inexplicable and incomprehensible. We also see him walking away, claiming that he is too old for this job and the World morally speaking, is something that makes no sense for him anymore.
We also see that Sheriff wasn’t prepared for this change and this “new violence” as he described in an exchange between him and his uncle after his retirement; “Some of the old-time sheriffs never even wore a gun. A lot of folks find that hard to believe. Jim Scarborough never carried one. That the younger Jim. Gaston Boykins wouldn’t wear one. Up in Comanche County. ” Also shows in:” Can’t help but wonder how they would’ve operated these times. ” As we can see Bell, after he describe that the old time was peaceable, morally and comprehensible, can’t make sense of the evil he is encountering.
