There are no “good” characters in the novel that I recall. The kid is really bad even though he is still just a kid. No one tries to guide him to the correct path. No one seems to care. Good doesn’t have a chance to exist in this novel because if it did it would immediately be destroyed by all the badness.
I think McCarthys view is men left to their own devices are bad. Law and order and civilisation are needed for good to exist. There is no real law and I dont remember God being mentioned much either except by the preacher at the start that the Judge has killed just because he can.
An interesting perspective on it thank you for writing it up for me. I haven’t read McCarthys other works so I don’t know the about his views. I do think that the book is highly critical of lawfuless and civilization. The kid goes out into the Mexican desert as a scalp hunter a pseudo legal profession and quickly the gang goes from killing indians to killing Mexicans to killing whomever. I think this shows how thin the veneer of civilization really is.
The kid is a kid and is easily mislead into a life of violence first by the army guy and later by the gang and the judge we never hear his inner monologue so we don’t really know how he feels about what he does. We do know that his heart contains some mercy for the victims of the gang the judge explicitly hunts him down for that mercy.
I see the book a critique/satire of the western genre. I agree it explores and questions the nature evil. But I don’t think it says much about how to tame it.
You are right I’d forgotten about that. He kills a bartender for slighting him if I recall correctly. Fair enough I suppose judging him as evil for that is a fair take.
There are no “good” characters in the novel that I recall. The kid is really bad even though he is still just a kid. No one tries to guide him to the correct path. No one seems to care. Good doesn’t have a chance to exist in this novel because if it did it would immediately be destroyed by all the badness.
I think McCarthys view is men left to their own devices are bad. Law and order and civilisation are needed for good to exist. There is no real law and I dont remember God being mentioned much either except by the preacher at the start that the Judge has killed just because he can.
An interesting perspective on it thank you for writing it up for me. I haven’t read McCarthys other works so I don’t know the about his views. I do think that the book is highly critical of lawfuless and civilization. The kid goes out into the Mexican desert as a scalp hunter a pseudo legal profession and quickly the gang goes from killing indians to killing Mexicans to killing whomever. I think this shows how thin the veneer of civilization really is.
The kid is a kid and is easily mislead into a life of violence first by the army guy and later by the gang and the judge we never hear his inner monologue so we don’t really know how he feels about what he does. We do know that his heart contains some mercy for the victims of the gang the judge explicitly hunts him down for that mercy.
I see the book a critique/satire of the western genre. I agree it explores and questions the nature evil. But I don’t think it says much about how to tame it.
But didn’t the kid kill someone in a bar fight before he even meets the gang?
You are right I’d forgotten about that. He kills a bartender for slighting him if I recall correctly. Fair enough I suppose judging him as evil for that is a fair take.