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Existential Fatigue In Sheriff Bell's No Country

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Recommended: Violence in mid 20th century literature

As readers follow Sheriff Bell through the duration of the novel he seems to be experiencing a growing existential fatigue. The violence that Sheriff Bell has to experience begins to age him more and more as the novel goes on, and the main reason why this violence is aging him is because he cannot make sense of all of the things that he has to witness. For example, Sheriff Bell had to analyze and look over almost every crime scene that occurred throughout the novel. Sheriff Bell was also the one who had investigate the scene after the death of Moss and the hitchhiker that was with him, and he also had to identify Moss’s body at the morgue. When Bell went to identify Moss’s body he knew that Moss had “[taken] a couple rounds in the face” so …show more content…

Sheriff Well’s also says that “I always thought I could at least some-way put things right and I guess I just dont feel that way no more”, this shows that Bell has reached the point in his career where he feels like he is not benefiting anyone and that no matter what he does the world is too corrupted to fix (298). The title of this book No Country for Old Men can be applied directly to Sheriff Bell because it correlates very well with his character. The words “old men” in the title represent Sheriff Bell because throughout the novel readers witness him aging in both mental and physical ways, and the word “country” represents where he lives. This title can be applied to Sheriff Bell because at the end of the book he feels as though he does not belong in his line of work anymore because of the existential fatigue he has faced, so there is no place for him where he lives anymore since he has decided to give up his job of being sheriff, hence the title No Country for Old

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