All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

In Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy describes a lawless and godless group of men ordained to cleanse the West of lesser people. This group wanders through the West leaving a trail of slaughtered people in their trail. The emptiness and ruthlessness of their hearts is reflected in the harsh and unforgiving landscape. McCarthy uses reoccurring themes of war, religion, and dance to paint a graphic picture of the savageness of life in the West.

The short story, "My Last Duchess," by critically acclaimed, Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, is an intriguing and thought-provoking work of prose. Though it ties considerably to the famous work by the same name, written by Robert Browning, it also brings its own ideas, and symbols to the table. The most prominent symbolic link within this story is the representation between the characterization of Miss Bessie--the high school english teacher--and the narrator 's ideas, thoughts, and fears about life. The term life -- for the purposes of this essay -- is defined as the existence of an individual person and their course through the world. In “My Last Duchess,” the narrator 's life is symbolically represented through Miss Bessie by the character traits of a positive reputation, overcoming obstacles, and the solitary nature of people.

​These two worlds Collins and McCarthy created where killing is a form of entertainment and/or necessity for one’s survival, one may assume that expressing any form of humanity is a sign of weakness. Moreover, because the main characters of both novels

Do you ever wonder what happens to the horses after the Kentucky Derby? Some retire peacefully after a life on the track, some are rehomed but many are sold to slaughter for the sake of a paycheck. Luckily, there are activists in the equestrian world standing ready to take these in these helpless athletes. Gallop On, a non-profit thoroughbred rescue located in northern Ohio, was founded to do just that.

“But, I 'm already resigned to this fate / Looking over my life, I recall / If it hadn 't been / for the loneliness / I 'd have no companion at all. ” This stanza from “Loneliness”, by Lora Colon evokes the negative impact a lonely fate has on a person. Words like “resigned” and “loneliness” establish a sense of depression and resignation. During the times of the Great Depression, many people felt similar feelings of melancholy and stoicism. Jobs were hard to come by, and realistic dreams of success were scarce. John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, allows readers to see the life of the Great Depression. The two main characters, George and Lennie, search for jobs, like many other migrant workers. They dream of owning their own land, however, Lennie’s habit of getting in trouble prevents their dream from being reality. After he accidentally causes more trouble at their new job, George is forced to kill him out of mercy. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck shows that even if one meticulously plans out the road to their American Dream, fate will inevitably intervene and lead one to desolation and loneliness.

The main recurring theme in Flannery O’Connor’s stories is the use of violence towards characters in order to give them an eye-opening moment in which they finally realize their true self in relation to the rest of society and openly accept insight into how they should act or think. This theme of violence can clearly be seen in three works by Flannery O’Connor: A Good Man is Hard to Find, Good Country People, and Everything That Rises Must Converge.

In this essay, M.D. will analyze the roles and choices the main characters made while relating them to the main theme of good versus evil and fate versus free will in Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men.)

Filled with a plethora of themes and convictions, Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men excels in its endeavor to maintain the reader’s mind racing from cover to cover. The setting is the Texas-Mexico boarder; the story embodying a modernized western-themed Greek tragedy filled with drug runners and automatic weapons. Llewelyn Moss, a Vietnam veteran, finds himself on the run from forces that seem to be an instrument of karmic consequence. While on the run, Llewelyn is given the opportunity to end the madness that has arisen so immediately in his life. But he doesn’t. Instead he braves on, defying his own advice, and persistent on luck, only leaving him a misfortunate ending. To fully recognize the circumstance the novel

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy explores many different themes about humans and the natural world. The story’s often vacant landscapes, and barren descriptions promote an idea of isolation throughout the text. One of the only recurring motifs throughout the story that promotes a sense of life are horses. Horses clearly stick out in the otherwise depressing landscape, and McCarthy utilizes this along with other techniques to develop an overall theme to the story. This theme, that humans and the natural world are somehow interconnected, is clearly portrayed by the role that horses play in the novel.

How does Cormac McCarthy’s Novel The Road, challenge a reader’s ideas, beliefs, experiences and values?

Claire Standish or “the princess” portrays the stereotypical popular teenage girl in The Breakfast Club. She is in detention with everyone else because she decided to skip class and go shopping, which also plays into the stereotypical teen girl image. It can also be assumed that she is spoiled and rich since her father tried to get her out of detention but failed, and she mentions to the group that her parents only use her to get back at the other one. She brings a fancy lunch of sushi while the other teens either have nothing or the standard lunch one’s parents might pack for them. There are a couple of times in the movie that she brings up her social standing and could even be considered as looking down on those who are not as popular as her. Even closer towards the end of the movie she informs the others that if they were to say hello to her in the hallway in front of her friends, she would have no choice but to ignore them. By the end of the movie, she has opened up to everyone else about her fears of letting her peers down and has formed a close relationship with Bender.

Cormac McCarthy’s novel, No Country for Old Men, enlightens the life of Llewellyn Moss, a welder and Vietnam veteran, who happens to stumble upon several murdered bodies, a sufficient supply of cocaine, and two million dollars of cartel drug money. Moss decides to seize the money and consequently sets off a chase for his life against the old hand sheriff Ed Tom Bell and hired psychopathic killer Anton Chigurh. However, McCarthy essentially exploits Moss’ and Chigurh’s escapade only as a subplot and ultimately conveys a deeper meaning. The novelist heavily relies on Bell’s failure to reconcile his morals of the approach crime used to take years before. Through analyzing the characters, moral relativism, and

For ages, people have been debating the idea of human morality and whether or not at its core humanity is good or bad. This philosophy is explored in Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road. The road is the story of a man and boy living in a post-apocalyptic world. Some cataclysmic event has crippled Earth’s natural ecosystem, leaving the skies engulfed in ash and the ground devoid of much life. The duo aim to journey south as a way to escape being frozen to death in the oncoming winter. During their journey, the boy and man come across different people and places that give them a better understand of what humanity has become and where they stand on that spectrum. Throughout The Road, McCarthy revisits the idea of being the “good guy” when there is no longer a need to, “carrying the fire” as it’s detailed in the book. The dichotomy between the boy’s moral conscience and the man’s selfish ideals helps develop McCarthy’s idea of humanity losing its selflessness in the face of danger.

In his novel The Road Cormac McCarthy uses a post-apocalyptic setting to help broaden the debate over moral good and evil. Not only do the main characters in his novel display either good or evil in their actions, but so do the people they encounter on their journey. These encounters are shaped by the moral decisions each individual makes. In this novel’s setting it is hard to define good and evil, but the choices made can still be applied to a non-apocalyptic world. McCarthy uses the experiences of the main characters to demonstrate that no matter what the scenario good will overcome evil.

The award winning film, No Country for Old Men, adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s 2007 novel, is a riveting tale of a brutal chain of events related to money, murder, and drugs, which rolls through West Texas in the 1980’s. Told through the perspective of the stories three main characters – a soulless killer, an old time sheriff, and an experienced country boy – both the novel and the film keep the audience anxiously waiting for the next gun fight or brutal killing. Amazingly, the film’s adaptation, directed by brothers Ethan and Joel Coens, manages to capture the themes and overall essences of the novel by maintaining all distinguishing mannerisms and dispositions of the characters; while also keeping the