Just like the lost generation of post-WWII, the current generation becomes lost by the mistakes of their fathers. In every generation, there is the old who points a finger at the young for the loss of virtue and decency, but it is the outcome of all the decisions made by the previous generations. What the book is ultimately telling us is that the irrational and outrageous behaviors by the younger generation in our society can be traced back to the decisions we made in the past. He can do nothing but to watch the next generation, who similarly goes through the Vietnam War, fall into further violence and intoxication.

This experience made him wise but somewhat a lost patriarch in the society, where he has to spiritually rely on his wife. In the book, the striking moment comes when Sheriff Ed Tob Bell confesses his cowardice during the service in World War II and how he was decorated for it. Gruesome violence became more prevalent, making the old men wonder what went wrong from the beginning. In the film, as Anton Chigurh’s coin toss dictated life and death, the society seemed to be dictated by simple probabilities and human ideals, such as the morality and ethics, had no place in it. The meaning behind the story, however, is not so obvious. Do you understand?ĭo you have any notion of how gaddamned crazy you are? I’m not sure why I did this but I think I wanted to see if I could extricate myself by an act of will. Because the dialogues are so simple, readers will become attentive to each page. McCarthy achieves the same effect by not wasting any words. Just like in photography where a black & white film would highlight the object and composition, a movie without any noise would make you focus on the dialogue and the visuals. In Coen brothers’ adaptation, you cannot hear any background noise except in perhaps one scene. These additional parts would cut through deep into the reality where the film could not reach. The book surprisingly adds another dimension to the movie with parts and dialogues that are omitted in the film. So I couldn’t help myself but to compare the book with Coen brothers’ masterful adaptation of it. Cormac McCarthy’s books are considered as modern classic without a doubt, but I’m just in that age group where the movie came first before the read. This book has been in my Kindle wishlist for a while after I watched the movie for like the third time maybe.

No country for old men book pages