Nihilism and Existentialism in Cormac McCarthy's The Crossing

Both The Road by Cormac McCarthy and The Empties by Jess Row are apocalyptic stories that describe the state of human civilization after the annihilation of civil society. Whereas in The Road civil society is destroyed and remains defunct after the apocalypse, The Empties tells of a people who are able to bounce back and reestablish their society. Many people today live their lives aimlessly, squandering their time day by day, partaking in life’s pleasures, and living for their own selfish reasons. McCarthy and Row bring attention to the selfishness and self-absorption that plagues today’s teens by showing two different possible scenarios following an apocalyptic event, resulting from a fundamental difference

In the passage from Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Crossing, the narrator describes the main character’s burial of a wolf that was recently killed. It us unclear if he had killed the wolf or had found her dead, but the experience has a profound effect on the character either way. McCarthy uses several literary techniques to accurately convey the impact on the protagonist, including detailed diction that creates powerful visuals in the mind of the reader. Along with this usage of imagery, the author includes religious and spiritual references to emphasize the deep sadness and wonder felt by the main character during this passage.

Camus states in The Myth of Sisyphus: "Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion. By the mere activity of consciousness I transform into a rule of life what was an invitation to death, and I refuse suicide. " "Revolt" here refers to the refusal of suicide and search for meaning despite the revelation of the Absurd; "Freedom" refers to the lack of imprisonment by religious devotion or others' moral codes; "Passion" refers to the most wholehearted experiencing of life, since hope has been rejected, and so he concludes that every moment must be lived fully. The naked truth of inevitability of death and stumbling upon a meaning of life (at least for one's own self) and revolting against the whole blind world, surely tranquilizes the mind.

The book “Coyotes” by Ted Conover describes the lives of immigrants who cross over to from Mexico to the United States. It describes the hardships that they face along the way and it shows what it is like to be an illegal immigrant. Ted Conover is an American journalist who basically wanted to shed light on the impact of illegal immigration in both Mexico and the United States. In order to do this he travels to Mexico so that he can experience firsthand what it is like to be a Mexican crossing the border illegally. From there the book describes his journey of trying to navigate life as an illegal immigrant in the United States.

The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy takes the reader on a journey through Mexico and South Western United States through the eyes of the protagonist Billy Parham, a young cowboy who began the story as young and naive, wishing for an adventure. He finds it when Billy captures the wolf that he and his father were hunting and, instead of killing the animal, he instead decides to take her back to the Mexican Mountains. Along the way, he began to deeply care for it and believe that it’s a “being of great order” that knew “what men do not,” willing to risk his own life to guarantee her safety (McCarthy 59-60). However, on his trip, Billy and the wolf get caught by Mexican authorities who decide to give the wolf to a circus. When Billy is released,

In an enticingly realistic novel, contemporary western writer Cormac McCarthy tells the coming-of-age story of a young John Grady Cole whose life begins and, in a sense, ends in rustic San Angelo. Page by page, McCarthy sends his protagonist character creation on a Mexican adventure, complete with barriers, brawls, and beauties. The events which bring about John Grady’s adventure and the reasons behind his decision to flight familiarity are the most intriguing aspects of the novel. Through an examination of the text, readers can determine that John Grady Cole’s hellish plunge from his position of grace on his grandfather’s ranch in Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses is a

At night, John Grady rides the patron's prized sire through the mountains beyond the hacienda in the company of Alejandra, the patron's beautiful daughter. But in a land as bound by honor and reputation as this is, the white-hot love between John Grady and this girl is as dangerous as anything they will face. When soldiers arrive to take John Grady and Rawlins away, the boys know it has nothing to do with Jimmy Blevins, but is instead because of some deeper, more elusive transgression that John Grady has committed in the name of love. With no one to plead their case, their fate is dire indeed. John Grady and Rawlins find themselves in a Mexican prison governed by stark violence. But in the hands of Cormac McCarthy this place takes on a dreamlike quality; it is not right or wrong, good or evil, but merely as inevitable a part of life as the sun setting in the West, something that must be faced in order for one to survive. All the Pretty Horses is the first volume in the Border Trilogy (the second volume is entitled The Crossing; and the third, The Cities of

In the novel “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, the theory of Existentialism can be easily seen through various key components. Existentialism is a philosophy that accentuates an individual’s existence as a free being who is entirely responsible for the choices they make. It questions the human existence and whether there is any purpose of living; it is a notion that declares that an individual must define their own meaning in life and attempt to make rational decisions while existing in an irrational universe (Crowell). Such existential concepts are showcased throughout the book as an unnamed father and son travel across the United States where an unclear cataclysm has occurred destroying almost all life on Earth. They are striving to survive in this world where murder, cannibalism and sex slavery have become the norm. They are faced with inhumane situations and barbaric people, forcing them to make crucial decisions. It is understandable that the father and the boy are undergoing an existential crisis when being placed in this post-apocalyptic world where they attempt to fulfill their ultimate goal of reaching safety by abiding by their morals and depending on their hope while questioning their faith in God.

Archetypal criticism follows a basic rule of categorizing or relating any work of literature into a set framework. It works from a subjective basis, it is used to determine and grasp the ideas of universal truths messages through literary work. The universal truths and messages are determined by identifying patterns like character types, storylines, settings, symbols. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a novel that accurately exemplifies the principles of archetypal criticism. This narrative account associates the characters of a young minor and his father to encapsulate the ideas of archetypal criticism. McCarthy presents the novel by setting the scene of a death-defying journey through a post-apocalyptic wasteland of America. The young lad

In the excerpt of Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Crossing McCarthy uses literary techniques that convey an impact on the main character. The literary strategies used are the tone of the excerpt that is created by the syntax, diction, and figurative language used in the excerpt. This allows for what can be interpreted as to what the author is trying to impact. The techniques can give the feeling that the main character is one with the wolf and can have similar feelings to a real life passing and funeral.

Camus explanations of the Myth of Sisyphus, presented the concept of the absurd by outlining the beliefs that an individuals life has worth but only his live in a world that denies such worth to survive. Therefore, the absurdity in the statement, explains the fact of a clash between the orders through which an individuals mind hard for, likewise the lack of order that we as humans find in the world.

What makes Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel The Road stick out from most dystopian works is that The Road takes place not before or during but after the end. The novel follows a man and his son as they survive the dangers of what once was the United States after an unspecified calamitous event. There is not much left of the world: no food, no animals, and no hope. Many readers will ponder how someone could still be motivated to keep moving forward under such circumstances. If we were living in the same conditions as the man and the boy, this question might seem more imperative. But arguably it is a question that can be applied to today: what, if anything, makes human life valuable or worthwhile? Through the dialogue between the characters, the novel provides two conflicting arguments that serve as potential answers for this question. The first argument is hope, which is associated with the Christian religion, while the other argument is futility, which has a nihilistic outlook of the ravaged world. This paper will examine the Christian imagery and nihilistic arguments contained in the novel and how the moral systems of the two conflict. While at first The Road might present itself as a powerful challenge to both Christian and nihilistic views of the world, in the end, the novel never explicitly reject either worldview.

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is his post-apocalyptic magnus opus which combines a riveting plot along with an unconventional prose style. Released in 2006, the novel has won awards such as the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award (Wilson). Oprah Winfrey also selected the book for her book club ("Cormac McCarthy”). The author, Cormac McCarthy, was born in 1933 in Rhode Island and is said to have wrote the novel because of his son and their relationship. The Road centers around a boy and his father while they try to survive after an unknown disaster occurs. While some people may argue that the unusual style takes away from the novel, it adds to the tone and meaning of the work.

Shakespeare believes that without any purpose in existence, life can be worthless. An example that portrays how Shakespearean characters question life and death is illustrated in Hamlet’s soliloquy, To Be Or Not To Be. Hamlet begins his speech by saying; “To be or not to be,

What makes life meaningless? Taylor states that there are two characteristics of Sisyphus’s life that make life pointless. The main trademark is the purposelessness of his life. Taylor stresses the way that there is no good reason for the labor that Sisyphus is compelled to do because of the gods. I concur with Taylor that the purposelessness in performing this action demonstrates that his life is good for nothing. Perhaps, as specified in class, if his punishment brought about something advantageous. For instance, when Sisyphus rolled the rocks up the hill, rather than falling back down, they shaped into a beautiful architecture, which would give his life meaning. In the book, Taylor stated, “Activity... even long, drawn out and repetitive activity, has a meaning if it has some significant culmination… activity,” showing that possibly if the rocks did form a figure it could give meaning to Sisyphus’s life. The second characteristic that makes Sisyphus’s life meaningless is the idea of endless repetition of his punishment given by the gods. Taylor claimed that if the act of repetition would have led to an achievement or goal his life may not have been meaningless, yet Sisyphus’s labor did not lead to anything besides pointless repetition.