Northrop Frye's Theory Of Patterns In No Country For Old Men

Northrop Frye’s theory of patterns in literature can be found in all of literature, in particular, Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men. Frye specifically notes that the "story of the loss and regaining of identity is[...]the framework of all literature". This theory is found in different ways in multiple characters within the novel No Country for Old Men. The handful of characters all go about one idea that Frye mentions, "For constructing any work of art you need some principle of repetition or recurrence”. In particular, Llewelyn Moss and Sheriff Ed Tom Bell lives are disrupted by a drug deal, causing them to re-evaluate their values and choices and ultimately learn that fate cannot be changed but chosen, making the cycle of literature that Frye proposed.

Moss’s life was changed when he found roughly two million dollars at a busted drug deal.With this amount of money, Moss’s life can be changed forever but that money belonged to drug dealers, and they were after the money as well. Moss blinded by the trauma of

Bell loses his identity after the event but is shown when he promises himself to save Moss. After Moss’ death, Bell feels defeated and recalls to the time he left his comrades dead on the battlefield and he just left. But after Chigurh flees and the mexican hitman is gone, Bell learns that fate cannot be changed and nothing can be done about it. Later on when Bell retires from sheriff, he then fully regains his identity after thinking about the tragedy in the war and realizing that he must live with it and just accept fate.

Through Bell and Moss’ struggles and the ability to conquer them, Northrop Frye 's theory of literature is present in No Country for Old Men. Bell and Moss’ struggles with the loss of identity and the ability to conquer them shows that Northrop Frye 's theory of literature is present in No Country for Old