No Country For Old Men
Characters By Naqash
Introduction
No Country For Old Men has three main characters that represent good, evil, and a neutrality that has both good and evil sides to him. Chigurh is a vicious, merciless hit man that kills people for a living. Sherriff Bell is a local county sheriff that investigates the crime scene related to Moss. Llewellyn Moss is neutral and his state of mind depends on the situation because he can save people, but still keep the money for himself.
Anton Chigurh
Character Traits:
- Ruthless
- Ambitious
- Smart
Llewellyn Moss
Character Traits:
- Cautious
- Resourceful
- Self-Centered
Sherriff Bell
Character Traits:
- Calm
- Curious
- Obervant
How each Character represents good, evil, or neutrality.
How Chigurh is evil
Chigurh represents evil because of his negative attitude and traits. Chigurh is a ruthless killer because he murdered the police officer, a motorist, Carson Wells, Carla Jean, and many other people during the time span of the book. Chigurh ruthlessly murdered Wells and Wells couldn't do anything about it. Before his death, Wells just asked Chigurh to finish him off "Well the hell with it. I think I saw all this coming a long time ago" (103). "He closed his eyes and he turned his head and he raised one hand to fend away what could not be fended him away. Chigurh shot him in the face" (103).
Chigurh is also evil because of how ambitious he is. Throughout the story he was determined to find Moss and find the money. Chigurh had equipped a tracker to find Moss and his money. Chigurh had also shot his way through a motel room trying to find Llewellyn Moss and the $2,000,000. (58)."Chigurh shot him 3 times so fast it sounded like one long gunshot.", "He stepped into the room and fired two loads through the standing door and another through wall and stepped out again." (58).
Chigurh is also a smart, evil killer. After he shot his way through the motel, Chigurh notices the air duct "Then his eye fell on the air duct." (58). He examined the air duct and realized that there were marks on the dust noticing that the money had been moved. "He could see the drag marks in the dust." (58).
Llewellyn's neutrality
Llewellyn Moss is neutral because his traits depend on the Situation. In the beginning of the book, Moss met a lone surviving Mexican gangbanger who was pleading for water. He left the scene and returned with caution. Moss can be a good character because he decided to return to the scene with a jar of water. "When he saw that he dropped to one knee. He set the water jug on the ground." (13).
Llewellyn also can be a bad character because he chose to put his family at risk by keeping the money. Although he knew about the consequences of stealing drug money, he decided to send his family somewhere and live in hotels. " I'll call you in a few days" (33). This proves that he was acting selfish.
Last, Llewellyn is a resourceful character. He went to a hardware store and bought materials to remove and insert the briefcase of money into an air duct. "There was a junction in the ductwork about ten feet down the shaft...and slid the pole down the ductwork" (56).
How Sherriff Bell is good
Sherriff Bell is a good person because of the positive quality of his character traits. Bell is calm, observant, and curious. Sherriff Bell is good because he is an observant officer. The Sherriff can describe the age of a dead body and gather evidence. "We got two pieces of in evidence... "[the drug runners were dead] four or five days" (54).
Sherriff Bell is also a good character because of how curious he is. When he arrived at the drug deal area, he had uncovered several dead bodies, spilled heroin, and no money. "If the heroin is missing and the money is missing then my guess is that somebody is missing" (54). He was curious to find out who was missing and what they did with the money or drugs.
Sheriff is also calm because he found out the truth about how Chigurh uses and air powered gun as a weapon to kill humans. While Torbert was disgusted, Bell stayed calm. "They don't do it thataway no more.... air powered gun that shoots a steel bolt out of it... and down she goes." (59). When Torbert said that he'd wished that Bell hadn't told him ,Bell replied "I know... I knowed what you'd say fore you said it." (59).