Epitomization of Poignant Nature and Paradoxical Elements in Human Life With Special Reference To Cormac Mccarthy'S Select Novels
Epitomization of Poignant Nature and Paradoxical Elements in Human Life With Special Reference To Cormac Mccarthy'S Select Novels
Epitomization of Poignant Nature and Paradoxical Elements in Human Life With Special Reference To Cormac Mccarthy'S Select Novels
By
L.MAHALAKSHMI
TAMILNADU, INDIA
JULY 2018
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Chapter-V
Summing up
Literature is a skill which explores the life delights and struggles of human
behavior. In everyone‟s mind thoughts and images comprises in different angle but
multifarious ideas and thoughts displays only in the minds of literary geniuses through
great writers and their literary talents. Every country has its own native writers to
In literature every writer concentrates his own concept and deliverance of style
in writing and exposing their thoughts through their own or common method.
McCarthy as a postmodern writer follows his own method of writing. McCarthy his
interviews declared that opera he likes to use „simple declarative sentences‟ with
capital letter, periods an occasional comma, a colon for setting of a list, he never
prefers other punctuations like semicolon, quotation marks for dialogue and believes
there is no reason to use‟ blot the page up with weird little marks, he aims is only in
Even though Cormac McCarthy is the heir of great writer William Faulkner,
he has proven his own talents about the world by analyzing the incidents happen in
and around. Cormac McCarthy is the latest example of the most American of
phenomena, and become an excellent that is rarely known by the public. His novels
are grotesque in subject matter and the language is bombastic and also he has given
the great strength to the southern literature and makes his writing a valuable one.
McCarthy‟s vision of creating awareness is to not only the people in America but to
the people in all over the world. McCarthy‟s writings aim to give awareness on
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various extreme problems like cruelty, perhaps man‟s most important apparent quality
in the world the author creates. The cruelty related to man is constant in literature and
All his ten novels are the representation of the adventurous, Nihilistic, and
atrocities with full of horrors and as well as the use of language that makes him as the
concepts and characters which are remarkable through his imaginative technique of
post-apocalyptic world and the other extreme horrors which are exposure of the
All the novels of McCarthy show the powerlessness of humanity. He likes the
forces of natural mutability. He likes to give and create awareness about the serious
depraved human being to defeat the horrible forces. As directed opposites, love and
death have been closely linked with life and literature. His description of work and
theme he proves that there is meaning in life or the search for it is a worthwhile
activity. McCarthy‟s and unnatural consequences and his view of the world and
people in it make him explain all the situations and consequences and he feels it an
McCarthy like other writers explored world in different perspectives each and
every work of McCarthy has proved dynamic representation of the authors‟ skill and
frustrating mind of the author about the world‟s pathetic situation that human beings
are unaware of what is happening around them. Each and every character created by
McCarthy gives the great admiration and wonder to feel everyone pathetic about the
reality in their life and to be cautious in all endeavors that will happen in future
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adventures. Thus each of McCarthy‟s work teaches lesson about the human beings
McCarthy is a great writer and innovative story teller; he shows his brilliant
knowledge about animals and landscapes finally the carnival figures, by making the
world to see in different aspect even though the author has given about black
characters. Though his creation of black focuses only the dark world that maximum
the people are being unaware of it. Everyone is engaged in their duties and
travel the mountain roads and forests of east Tennessee, and the city streets of
characters does not have any important purpose of wandering and the desire of the
characters withdrew or to explore or to escape, but the journey on the road and the
destination that they have is death. That is proved in every novels and the unwise
Thus McCarthy‟s views of themes in the silent world and the world‟s reality
with the movements of the religious imagination. The incest, infanticide, necrophilia,
fiction and shows his creativity. He sees the world as in wild place in this fiction and
godless world and uncommon love for the common people. Without any goodness
how people suffer in the world as given as great examples in McCarthy‟s novel.
McCarthy‟s world of imagination for the readers has immense in all works
exclusively pictured.
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does not bothers about the gossips and other unwanted luxurious things, personally he
suffered lot in his earlier life with small earning, and finally, he started his career. His
fame rose by writing the novels like The Road, Blood Meridian, Borden Trilogy,
made the readers to involve in the dark world and not only in the four novels but also
has the evil and horrors sprinkled in all other novels. The four novels that thesis dealt
with the researcher to expose all the evils surrounded in the world, that every reader
should have the tolerance to tackle the situations like McCarthy‟s hero‟s faces in their
life. There is a strong stress of meaning in McCarthy‟s novels, but the experience of
seems to introduce the evil suffering and to prohibit the life from the evils.
everyone have that kind of situations and emotions in their own life or creating such
kind of imaginary stories. The world is full of entertainment in every normal person‟s
life, the horror and atrocities experience not by all. McCarthy‟s way of representation
of the world gives very great awareness to world and to the family members who
Each and every character is the unique representation of traits which is good
problems with the struggles, all are exposed the picture of multifarious problems that
is ignored by everyone in the world of realities and imagination even though the
author don‟t much in generally with all his novels. His focus on the world is in angle
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of atrocities is existing till now. Through the portrayal themes McCarthy wants the
society to disturb the individual. Its great lesson for everyone who reads McCarthy‟s
novels and they may come to know, of the world becomes only from the society not
from individual.
Outer Dark and Child of God exposes the nihilistic attitude of human belief
and other are in the great exposure of theme and characterization in like Lester
Ballard in Child of God experiences all and loneliness through the novel. Ballad
experiences all the evil by making his character as evil person with full of strangeness
and evil in the entire novel. Lester Ballard is the fine creation Cormac McCarthy‟s
The surrounding and the environment are the reason for developing Ballard‟s
strangeness that will not be visualized anywhere else. Everyone can wonder that‟s
why the author has pictures that kind of character and all other abnormal character
also pictures the theme of novel and the Child of God, Ballard as such a child adopted
with murderous and corruptible man survives boldly in the savior county mountain
making everyone scared by strange look and strange behavior. V.S. Naipaul as an
Indian writer has explained the culture entitled „India- A wonder civilization‟ likewise
Cormac McCarthy portrays wounded culture and civilization through his novel by
presenting dark themes that gives everyone to be aware of all kind of evil.
Thus like the other writers, McCarthy exposes the divergence and convergence in his
novels. Divergence through dark themes with horrors in Outer Dark and Child of God
which cannot be accepted by everyone and the convergence through the real
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relationship between the father and son in The Road, and love relationship between
John Grady and Alejandra in All the Pretty Horses. McCarthy is very much particular
about mentioning the horrific situations of a person without education or without any
family background how their life is spoiled and urges everyone to the perspective of
good environment.
McCarthy as a post modern writer, his themes are unique than other writers
and clearly focuses about the dark themes of corruption and evil. The extreme horror
focused in the novel Outer Dark and the theme of incestuous relationship between the
brother Culla Holme and his sister Rinthy Holme. Culla Holme as a responsible
brother commits such kind of corruption with his sister and not able to develop the
positive attitude and notable to focus the good things. The sister Rinthy‟s shyness she
is not able to reveal anything to others. The two siblings‟ division starts from the
The author creates the dark world through this evils, the second great crime of
the siblings is leaving the new born kid. Here McCarthy says the importance of the
relationship and about the real world how the people are casual in making mistakes
and lead their life happily, but in American custom the siblings they refuse to lead
happy life and feel the guiltiness and spoil their entire life.
In The Child of God McCarthy gives apt example for the people who come out
of the society by force and how the victim has become an aggressive person. Now
days there are lot of crimes are happening in the world only because of alienation,
lack of love and care. Lestard Ballard as lonely person forced to come out from the
family and involve in extreme horrors which everyone cannot even imagine in the
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whole world. The author as a great writer of exploring distinct themes in tested to
create such kind of cruel character is to create awareness among the whole world.
No one escapes from any kind of crime of punishment through the life history.
McCarthy sculptures the character Lester Ballard to give awareness about the people
and especially the family members‟ responsibility of taking care of anchoret wherever
they are and whatever they may be McCarthy is very strong in depicting the importance of
In Outer Dark the siblings realize their mistakes, their own risk they are come
out of the group and become alienated from the society and face lot of disasters still
the end of the novel. Child of God, Lester Ballard a childlike character faces the
problem in the very beginning of the novel and settled in Mount Savior country, his
crime starts from the mountain and take all kinds of crime which is strange than
others. Hence the nihilistic and disastrous life can be experience by the protagonists in
both the novels. McCarthy is very strong believer of nature and human nature makes
everyone to wonder the happening of evil that accumulate in all over the world.
McCarthy also interested in dealing with horses and horse riding like John
Grady in All the Pretty Horses. McCarthy is explained the traditional manpower‟s and
other lost values, Horses, freedom, the importance of land, deep and spontaneous
Camaraderie view of McCarthy expresses the surreal horror and violence in the
surreal world. McCarthy‟s elevated purpose does wonders for deserts, mountains,
freezing winds, night landscapes and the tangibility of food and other necessary things
needed.
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McCarthy‟s characters are most sympathetic, and his nature exist wholly on its own,
all themes are indifferent to human purpose or desire. McCarthy‟s symbols are never
less than artfully innocent and its simplicity in its themes allow the reader to have the
deeply, serous, uncomplicated, romantic values. John Grady in All the Pretty Horses
is a great example, and his association with the concept of idealism. The
consciousness of the hero become stable, the situations makes him to be sensational
for certain period of time. Everything scattered and again he will face lot many
problems for each and every mistake the situation is created only by the people to
In the Pretty Horse, Duena Alfonsa, Alegendra‟s great aunt is friendly towards
Grady and admires him, but at the end she opposes him as a suitor for niece not
because of his nationality, and wrong class or because is penniless but because his
luck is bad. The old lady studies about the world and culture, and become as monk of
the family and the society that very important in Mexico and is culture and values.
In All the Pretty Horses the overpowering evil to good that McCarthy shows
Mexico. McCarthy‟s each and every novel the crime and sad incidents happens inside
the family and that is become the great hallmark of his novels. The incidents happen
on social conditions that they meet the world without the meditation of law, morality,
religion or politics. McCarthy‟s novels impart these dispositions are natural persistent
it shows the unpracticed democratic world. The intension of every character is forced
in their own mindset that is the main reason for every human being they never enter
The Road received remarkable success as a most powerful novel for its
survival of the father and son in the post-apocalyptic world. In the year 2007
McCarthy received Pulitzer Prize for the poignancies of the wasteland have received
sufficient enough popularities and deals about McCarthy‟s engaging pathos of life and
death scenario. Critics also speak about the novels of power that constantly identified
McCarthy„s survival and struggle of the character representation is not just for
the body but the ways of relating of being human. In a world without any basic needs,
having the life preserving habits of violence of those they encounter on the Road
seems a moral as these who involved in immortal activities encounter the problem and
Everyone is able to see the powerful sacrificial love between the father and the
son throughout the novel. The love and concern to protect the soon is an unimaginable
caring which loses in the real world. Many critics said that McCarthy‟s novel a tale of
nothingness, but the whole world makes the human life meaningful, in the barbaric
environment father and son‟s relationship and their survival in the struggling gives the
The father‟s love alone empowers the son‟s faith emerges hope for humanity‟s
future. That exposed in a great manner by showing the father‟s protection towards his
son each expresses and teaches love as a concern for the needs of the beloved, the
father has attained distress in many attempts the safeguard the boy in all horrors.
Though his humble conversation, parental acts, the father keeps himself conformed
his love and offers his child education in this virtue. The father enjoys the
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pleasantness by offering his child those meager gifts in the barren world affords. Like
Here is a great depiction of love need and longing to give what is good to the
beloved whose goodness that love affirm goes further to father. The father‟s moral
instruction takes the form of inculcating the virtue of love through love of habitual
acts concern for the other and it is good food and the secular understanding of
goodness and relationships, one can believe the from divine life through spiritual
relationship.
McCarthy which has some strangeness that has the motivation and challenges. The
through love and relationship from Hacienda family faces lot of struggles. His
survival becomes purposeless at the end of the life. His expectation of true from the
ranch owners get failed because of some rituals and family culture were followed in
the family rules and regulations inside the family. The love which receives by the
obeys her aunt‟s words. After some receiving some advice from her aunt then, she
decides her fate. Here the family responsibility is getting much importance at same
time the protagonist John Grady is become helpless and careless by his family
All the Pretty Hordes is a contradictory to The Road. In The road the father‟s
true love is exposed then in All the Pretty Horses. The father becomes helpless to his
son, thus in anyway Cormac McCarthy‟s protagonist in his novel fragile relative in
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their status and torn between opposites are both lonely and belonging, brutal and
relationship has explained the society and its changes and its needs for the survival in
the hopeless world. The humanistic values of care and solidarity are placed within a
decanted postmodern humanism. The strangeness and mystery of life can appear and
repression is exposed much like any other thing and the redemption is only through
Cormac McCarthy is a subsequent writer follows the writing style and usage
of words; syntax and even similar themes in few novels like William Faulkner and
become the heir of him. McCarthy‟s writings prove himself as literary genius and his
frankness through the portrayal of characters. McCarthy‟s makes all his writings as
notable one and makes everyone to view about the world in all the angles. The
affirmation of life and of humanity, however severe the experience and the horror in
any literature can analyze the theme, style and even scrutinize characters intellectually
or psychologically. This proves the researchers skill and originality through the thesis.
The researcher aims in finding new theme with new focus on aiming new ideas given
by the new writer. Cormac McCarthy as a writer of dark themes presents the nature of
The passion towards the nation McCarthy has given new shades to the
literature, many critics have said that “McCarthy‟s writings are ambiguous”, but his
uniqueness in explaining the strangeness like violence through horrors and natural
disasters make everyone to feel the real world experiences in every individual‟s life.
sentence and, completely lacks quotation marks, and frequently embeds dialogue in
The evocations of unjustifiable destruction and nihilism require only for the
readers remain cognizant of the violent impulse that inherent in all mankind. The
description of most horrible incidents are understandable by using simple and short
language divide of emotion gives reader authority for future proceedings. Critics point
out that McCarthy‟s third person narrative style functions as an impartial observer,
McCarthy received no fame in the beginning, many critics asserts that he has
very few scope in writings. After writing few novels his literary reputation is
championed by such luminaries as Saul Bellow who, when sitting on the 1981
McCarthy‟s vision of bleak world determines the readers to the mature mind
to tolerate the difficulties and to understand about the metaphysical world. McCarthy
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is a writer who could make an informal text to present the end of the world and the
richness in his writings become dull. McCarthy uses unique style of writing narrates
the whole idea of specific themes in relating various moments that no one interprets in
their work.
Paradox of Choice: One Writer, Ten Novels, and a Career-Long Obsession by Scott
Oates and Donoghue do not resort to the tired and superficial cliché,
once teasingly intimate yet also fundamentally alienated from us. They
unbound, but they have a power over us that contradict that claim.
criticism of McCarthy: few other authors working over the last forty
giving things a new form. That McCarthy does this with a singular
ability is inarguable; even his detractors will grant the inherent beauty
through their own decision making and the crucial incidents which are exclusively
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portrayed in his novels. His themes are specified for the conflicts which everyone
encounters in the journey of life. The conflict may come through good or bad but the
Cormac McCarthy does not give room for happiness and success his major
themes deals with conflicts like horror, violence, deception and poverty. The darkness
in everyone‟s life represents in the form of their own fate, throughout the novels of
McCarthy. There is lot of themes that deals with the great concepts and ideas that
creates a new history or new world by critics‟ opinion or the researchers‟ opinion.
McCarthy in his novels has given a different kind of concept by creating new kind of
evils that no one thinks of surviving in the extreme dark and violence. There is no
themes of self-determination, faith, courage and the quest for meaning, self-identity in
the world of extreme evil. This research entitled “Epitomization of Poignant Nature
McCarthy‟s select novels” discussed about all the good and bad, joy and sorrows
represented in McCarthy‟s four novels. McCarthy‟s writings thus prove all extreme
horrors that prevail in all over the world. The main elements in human life are
survival. His themes also give conclusion for the phrase survival of the fittest. In all
the countries mortal begins or the survival characters and they live their life for the
shifts into alternate realities that implies about secret truths or redemption, one
immediately thinks about his triggering theme. McCarthy has not mellowed of his
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view of life, he conforms world by telling all cold and hard themes through his
novels. The portrayal of world in McCarthy‟s writings has the jerk on thinking by
every incident which occurs in every novel. The brother and sister‟s careless life in
Outer Dark, Lester‟s peculiar animalistic activities in Child of God and the
cannibalistic attitude of the strangers in The Road and in the same way positive
nature like the true relationship in All the Pretty Horses and the true father and sons
death and horror. His vision in writings is to expose the world full of distinctive
features. McCarthy deals in all his works of literature especially in themes like
violence, horror, sex alienation and death. McCarthy a responsible writer focuses on
giving awareness about modern aesthetic values and how the people missing the
values. McCarthy‟s interest in violence and horror reflects the realities of conquest
and nations building. All his novels speak about the incidents. McCarthy with his
own distinct vision reflects the sensibilities of his romantic pre-romantic features.
The Human repression is a biggest thing that happens within the human beings
all over the world. Most of the families in the society, people are fails to do anything
in their life. McCarthy as a representative of creative writer gives the moral and
ethical values and portrays the human expression in both novels in The Road, the
chief character faces the natural disaster and being repressed from the society, the
father and son‟s relationship is redefined. The true love and sacrifice of the father
gives the great sentimental touch for the novel and makes every reader to be
empathetic.
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In All the Pretty Horses, the repression starts from the beginning of the novel
and the protagonist is lament for the true love and affection which is questionable
everywhere in the world and even in the families. John Grady Cole it becomes a fate
that he cannot able to retain his relationship in with his parents as well as his lover
Alejandra. The true friendship is maintained as a good relationship till the end of the
novel.
Thus all McCarthy‟s novel‟s discusses the causes of major conflicts and
people‟s eccentric experience in the world. The four major novels of Cormac
McCarthy deals with various kinds of strange events and its causes give the awareness
about the self and the environment. Since everyone live in the world filled with moral
and ethical values should have the awareness of various kinds of evil which represents
in the form of our own character. McCarthy visualizes the ultimate scene of cultural
The foregoing chapters have shown how the author portrayed social and
personal crisis in his major novels Outer Dark, Child of God, The Road, and All the
Pretty Horses respectively. The sensitivity of the author very particular about his craft
themes through different characters. In this respect the four novels which deals major
themes McCarthy has received much influence among critics and also from the
This thesis discusses about the major conflicts as predominant theme that
every individual experiences in their life cycle. All novels of McCarthy distribute
different arguments and he is known for his sparse use of punctuation and use of
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simple language. The extreme horror in the novels of Outer dark and Child of God
deals the personal life of the protagonist in which the sufferings and its causes clearly
and how the brother and sister relationship become profane and their sufferings moves
into extreme level. The characters are exposed to live alone in the forest cabin and
their life begins and leads the mysterious life. The novels Outer Dark and the Child of
god focuses the conscious struggling of the individual characters and their efforts to
In Outer Dark, their incest is the great fear which both doesn‟t want to expose
their original background. Every hero or Heroine has the desire to achieve something
great in their life. In Outer Dark their desire to getting redemption from their sin and
southern gothic western and post-apocalyptic genres that deals about the dark world.
west continuous the violent and nihilistic path targets the apocalypse which has paved
the way to prove how the society and the individual is affecting and flourishing in the
environment and the cause of psychological defect through these two novels
and sufferings through their misdeeds is shows the position of the world with great
troubles. In Outer Dark the two main characters Culla and Rinthy as siblings become
pregnant and delivers the baby, without letting anyone to know about their
relationship. Feeling disgrace Culla leaves the baby in the woods by telling lie to his
sister that the baby is sick and dead. Rinthy came to know when the baby is alive she
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tries to move from the cabin in search of the kid. Culla as a brother tries to find job for
his earnings and came to know that his sister has moved out of the cabin. He starts his
journey by searching job and his sister Rinthy. The post-modern edifice explains the
reality of cruel difficulties and responsibilities. Culla Holme as a brother shows his
I was hunting my sister, he said. She runs off with this here tinker.
Little old scrawny looking kind of a feller. Herself she‟s just young. I
been hunting her since early in the spring and I can‟t have no luck
about finding her. She ain‟t got anybody but me to see about her. They
ain‟t telling what all kind of mess she‟s got into. She was sick
protect his sister and feel pity about her health and survival. Rinthy moves out of the
cabin with intolerable pain in her breast and the bleeding from the chord. This shows
a kind of revulsion and makes them to withdraw from the societal activities. The
brother and sister relationship gets much importance in our country like India, the
same way in Outer Dark both the siblings wants to maintain the good relationship but
their desire of sexual infatuation drugs which is supported by anyone in the world.
After committing the mistake only they feel guilty conscious and separated from each
other without informing and also they fail to lead a happy life in the society.
The innocence misleads and makes them to move far away from the society
and makes their entire life dark. There is common psychological belief of every
individual person‟s self-dignity is lost and their total life will be lost. If the person will
be pampered by the members of the family or if she/he lives in the good environment
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their mind will be distracted and they never allowed involving in such kind of evils.
But in Outer Dark the brother and sister couldn‟t able to get such kind of relationship
or the environment, the evil desire forced them to involve in such kind of activities.
Connor. The confrontation of evil continues throughout this novel. Every work of
literature deals with evil and the characters suffer in the extremes and encounters
nightmarish landscape. They do not have the real understanding of purpose in doing
so. Rinthy as a partner of sinner tries to sustain herby searching the kid. Culla on the
other hand his guilt concerning the child drags him and takes on a universal identity.
While Culla wandering in the forest appears the dark figures, escaped murders may be
her maternal instinct to find and care for her child able to meet strange people but they
offer help to Rinthy by giving food and shelter but as mother her deep suffering of
lamentation about her baby is disturbed her mind and both of their life ends in horror.
Both brothe and sisters life begins with evils and it continued till the end. Though
they are special characters they did not get much importance.
The scared relationship is seen through father and daughter, brother and sister
but everything in the postmodern world changes upside down. The horror of evil is
represented in this novel through the incestuous relationship and the powerlessness of
humanity to face the society after committing these kinds of mistakes. McCarthy as a
post-modern writer proves that the outlook of human being and the hesitance for
In spite their incest both the brother and sister struggle for their own wishes
but their aspiration and likings is not that much great. In the materialistic world, the
whole world lives only for fulfilling their great desires like love, money and all the
luxuries, McCarthy as a postmodern writer does not cared for the importance of
materialism and his main aim is to focus the flaws and evils that is occurring in every
nook and corner. People may ignore that kind of mistakes in a simple way, or they
may be separated from the society and here all the prejudices from the surroundings.
From the ancient to modern there is a tendency that affected person is cornered and
In Outer Dark the brother and sister experiences the utter horror which is
unimaginable and no one can survive in such kind of life. Culla Holm and Rinthy
Holm moves for different kinds of search to get succeed for their small desire but
their survival continues independently by experiencing all the hurdles. They focus
their life like hackneyed eyes wherever they move. McCarthy‟s portrayal of the dark
world and the other side of the miserable life of the people is exposed through these
Culla Holme and Rinthy Holm has long standing but they cannot succeed and
they are not willing to involve in leading any further life. Both of their wishes are not
fulfilled and their life ends in tragedy. From the beginning to till the end there is no
natural catastrophe in the novel and there is no great achievement between the
Outer Dark combines the mythic and the actual in a perfectly executed work
of the imagination. Richard B.Woodward‟s article dated on19th April 1992 in the
New York Times Magazine claims that Outer Dark as a novel of twisted nativity and
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the story about the girl‟s search for her baby with the product of incest with her
brother. At the end of their independent wanderings through the rural south the
are intolerable in the world. Like other American writers McCarthy expresses horrors
through murder, grave-robbing, cannibalism and other outrages and these kinds of
evils dealt in this novel full of darkness, sin and guilt. The survival of the human
being may change according to the situation but in McCarthy‟s novel the situations
are like evil and bad ill omen. McCarthy‟s target of evil is explore to the world is
Child of God is another main novel which flashes the profound sin and evil
through the characters of selfishness and obsessive attitudes. The main character
Lester Ballard represented as the main offender become involved in all such kind of
intolerable evils like voyeurism, sex and murder. These kinds of evil incidents created
by the McCarthy to understand the people about the world and how an individual
changes the mentality when he is not able to get the affection and when he cheated by
others. Everyone feel sympathy and worry about his loneliness, instead to feel
annoyance. The parable makes everyone to comprehend the reality of the central
character. These situations clearly bring out the meaning of the title Child of God.
McCarthy contemplates the changes of the world and the characters of real
world through his dexterity in portraying of characters in his novels. In Child of God
the protagonist Lester Ballard represents as a strong evil which is not accepted by
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anyone. If a man or woman becomes evil because of the situations and lack of care
and affection what they expect from the parents or from the environment.
In Child of God Lester Ballard as a main figure owns land as his main
County. He struggles a lot to protect his land but without getting support from anyone
he left unwillingly settled in the mountain. The strangeness begins from the beginning
to end and every situation gives space for Ballard to involve extreme horrors. Unlike
Outer Dark‟s protagonist Lester Ballard arguable faces his guilt with courage. HE
identifies himself as Culla can never do. McCarthy also portrays that Lester serves a
The strange act of killing the people, having sex with corpses makes everyone
to scare and to feel clumsy and it shows the deep agony of an alienated man. These
are the causes of loneliness and careless relationship. These kind of intolerable
situations make everyone to feel shame of the human behavior and the human society
with full of selfishness. The strangeness starts Ballard‟s life is after his land
abandonment and that time there is no one for him to support automatically Lestard
becomes a stranger then onwards. The Sherriff did not give any remedy and he won‟t
find any alteration for Lestard but here the problem starts from the Sheriff, Lester
becomes the person alienated and involve in all horrors. Here the author stresses the
problem and exposes extreme failures and causes of the evil society.
Carnival, Comedy, and Containment states that, “McCarthy‟s direct use of the
carnivalesque can be traced to some of earliest works and appears fully rendered in
Child of God” (116) by mentioning Ballard becomes carnival figure. Every sufferer
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like Ballard gets the suppression and cornered by the family members but McCarthy
portrays Lester Ballard as central figure and by this he crafts the hidden horrors
McCarthy‟s works portrays nihilistic life of the human beings through his
theme and characters in the novels of Outer Dark and Child of God. The sufferings of
every individual and their sad life that they focus only the negative thoughts and the
mind never allow them to think positive, automatically the sufferer moves in the dark
world. In McCarthy‟s novels dark world is represented in an extreme level and deep
sorrows are the causes only from the human beings. The man made life is destroyed
only by the man. God represents as a keen listener of the world and make everyone to
The nihilistic attitude and living out the society grows when the person life
cursed, every human being faces evil in their normal life, but if a person is pushed
into the extreme evil or if he experiences the intolerable horrors they move out of the
society and behave themselves as a cruel person which no one expects in their life.
Every experience in the bleak world is like a great adventure and gives some hope
fullness for every individual. The person who experiences strangeness in their life will
face lot of problems to the extreme and experience terrible behaviours. But the choice
of living in the world and tackling the problems depends on the environment and
and circumstances
sentimental understandings of the past; page after page, as bodies pile up, readers
McCarthy renders this brutality as awe-inspiring and as such, has been cursed of
producing violence and honors. McCarthy‟s use of violence thus makes difficult for
the tradition of the western hero. The horror from other author‟s works also
experience the struggles but the end it will good but in McCarthy‟s novels every hero
McCarthy not only as a writer who expresses the intricate thoughts and ideas,
he himself experienced some strange situations like his own son‟s separation from
him in the dark world without anything to direct the future life. Being as a father
McCarthy dreamt of the dark world and his son‟s survival and sufferings with lots of
love and affection. McCarthy‟s presentation of the world with horrors and natural
disasters is the great deployment of creating awareness among the populace through
his novels by exploiting unique dark themes. The epitomization of dark world is
In the novels of The Road and All the Pretty Horses McCarthy deals the father
and son‟s relationship paradoxically with two different situations of family life. In
The Road the father as a protagonist loses the family and survives in the post-
apocalyptic world to fulfill his responsibilities by showing his true love to his son and
proves himself to be a real hero. The father and son‟s relationship successfully
The novel gets criticism from everyone; it is a novel of violence and horror.
But the novels main characters focus about showing true love between each other.
The father dreams about his wife with his thought and always keeps a bird‟s eye view
on his son where ever he goes. It‟s a great thing that sharing of food and love is never
even reduced in any kind of situation or whatever the obstacle they meet. When they
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walked through the house they find plenty to enjoy in the post-apocalyptic world.
They find something to stop their hunger temporarily feel good that they had
Papa?
Pears
The father and son enjoyed very much and they would like to live in the
house, they bath, they eat, they play and they slept. They enjoyed a lot but they stay
there for only few days. The father was always conscious about the strangers and felt
that their happiness will be destroyed if they are not moving from that house and the
man plans to move away from the house immediately. Their enjoyment stops from
there itself and the father‟s main aim is to protect his son from the strangers. This
shows the sincerity of a responsible father. The fathers‟ responsibility become very
less when they meet sufferings they felt like everything they lost in the world and
involve in some horrors and they ignore the family responsibilities. But in The Road
father‟s perseverance of bringing up his son is all extreme struggles is a great example
that McCarthy given to all irresponsible father‟s in the world and every father become
Most of the McCarthy‟s novels hold different moral code and each novel deals
with the different conceptions of morality and ethics. The chief characters in each
novel McCarthy works to challenge common morality and ethics. The extreme
gruesome violence is explained in all the novels and finding the redemption and
importance of values in life. His other two novels like grotesque, pastiche and
paranoia. By constructing these kinds of themes McCarthy provides the clear example
and awareness for moral framework and guidelines for their lives in the society.
There are lot of atrocities are happening in our country like India and other
representation of individual father‟s true love towards his son amidst all horrors and
atrocities. When they meet kind hearted people they will help them by providing food
and other necessary things. The sense of humanity is interpreted here. At the same
time the father as a protector ready to face the horrors to save his son‟s life amidst all
horrors.
In the novel Outer Dark Culla Home as a brother tries to search his sister to
give some protection. In All the Pretty horses Lacy Rawlins as a friend suffers for the
whole life for the sake of his friend. The sense of human race is exposed through
these kinds of love and care. Whatever the affection and love the character tries to
give and show good concern among their relationship that may modify at any cause if
the situation changes. Hence the relationship gets broken into fragments. That is apt
between the brother and sister in Outer Dark, and between the lovers in All The Pretty
Horses.
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apocalyptic world is an interesting character as no father son cannot prove, there may
father who can express their love but in present postmodern world the true parental
cannot be expected. As in McCarthy‟s another novel All the Pretty Horses, the
protagonist lives along with his parent he cannot get that much love from both parents
than his grandparents. McCarthy proves the limitation that in the materialistic world.
The hero‟s father in this novel also a good natured and very calm, lovable but
he cannot safeguard the love that remains only for short period. In both novel the evil
characters harmful deed represents as violence and also in the road the natural disaster
is the additional horrible evil experienced by the father and son. But whatever struggle
they face their relationship is re defined .though it is proved when he thinks about
killing his own son because as a father he does not want to give his son to the evil for
the death too. Even though All the Pretty Horses has acquired the theme of
romanticism, the theme of love ends in failure. Though characters may supports for
the idealism and the practice of pragmatism prevails in the surface of love
relationship.
In All the Pretty Horses the true love is received from his friend Lacy Rawlins
instead his family members. When he moved to Mexico and works in the ranch and
his love towards the ranch owners daughter Alejandra retains only for few days that is
the period Cole felt like living paradise after coming out of his grandfather ranch as
paradise. So Cole‟s parental care, and his care retains temporary but the true
friendship continuous till the end. As parents they are devoid of responsibilities.
Rawlins as like other friends shows the loyalty that is impeachable that too only to
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John Grady like other friends. These two boys are very supportive to each other. As
true friends the boy pursue their journey whatever they experience in their life.
The violence and the horror faced by Grady are the failure love from his
parents and separation from his lover. This is kind of mental horror faced by Grady
and the physical horror he experienced from the police people that too because
unknown Jimmy Blevins becomes a partner and because his criminal and evil mind
Grady and Rawlins caught by the police and then the love affair with the ranch
owner‟s daughter Alejandra. But the tenderness and true love of Alejandra tells her
aunt to support Grady to come out of the prison and by promising that she never met
her love anymore in future. Likewise Grady and Rawlins released from the prison.
Grady‟s love for Alejandra never fade but Alejandra is from the tradition
brought up family wants to save and earn good name for her father and family. But
Grady laments for his love till the end by thinking about his grandfather. Father and
lover is the realism that everyone should have realized in their mind. But Alejandra as
a female wants to protect her father‟s values and abide the rules of the family. Thus in
these two novel whatever horrors faced by them the relationship is redefined. In The
Road further leaves his son to a new family with some hope, in All the Pretty Horses
John Grady separated from his family and lover stand-alone by thinking about his
In both the novels The Road and All the Pretty Horses, the protagonist thinks
about their past life memories and feels sad for the separation of family members.
John Grady sheds his final tears for Abeulla, his family servant and also like his
grandmother. At last he was even his lifelong friend Rawlins is not there, the author
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makes it clear that john Grady is now a creature of the contact zone of the border
itself.
John Grady mourns for a Mexican on United States soil in the neutral zone of
the grave yard. Grady belonged to United States, belonged briefly in Mexico but was
Alarcon comments the novel irony as „ it is suggestive of the familiar story of the
American male who leaves civilization behind to seek a different way of life in the
wilderness refuge into the very thing he sought to escape. John Grady‟s heroic
qualities, his horsemanship, his physical stamina, his capacity to endure the pain is in
All the Pretty Horses is a more conventionally plotted novel when compared
to his earlier novels, the unusual characters and their dark and unconventional
cannibalism. These kinds of themes distract the readers from McCarthy‟s reliance on
archetypal structural devices including the journey and quest motives, they are
Unlike the other novels, All the Pretty Horses set in a world of comparative
normality, which is not to say that it is any less dominated by evil, anymore controlled
by rationality, logic or divine purpose than the other novels. John Grady never
understand the rapaciousness of the world, the divisions of the human heart are the
great struggle that occurs behind the thick walls of Mexico. This novel fundamentally
a Bildungsroman novel and follows the tradition Hawthorne, Twain, Melville and
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James, it is proved in John Grady‟s through desert and mountain on horseback into
the wilderness where innocence experiences the evil of the universe and risks defeat
by it. The same theme is in James Joyce‟s novels. John Grady as a young boy
experiences pain and sufferings, without the support of his parents and any one in the
It is assumed that human beings in the world are forced to engross the
malevolence and it is ignored by their own self before the mask of pleasure. That
leads everyone to involve in such kind of sin and think their environment is full of
relationship. This can be viewed in all his novels in The Road the father and son
post-apocalyptic world through their strong and gentle relationship with one other.
While the man's care for the boy is continued till the end. So the love makes us a great
and tragedy like McCarthy‟s novel The Road, he exposes the post-apocalyptic work
and the natural and unnatural disasters. The man and boy are the agents of the god in
McCarthy‟s novel. In Wole Soyinka‟s play every character are the agents of death like
way for death by possessing the external pleasures. In McCarthy‟s The Road even
though there are evil characters the father and son shows true love, but the entry of
death cannot be stopped in both the novels. Both Soyinka and McCarthy crafts death
as the main object in the world and which is exist in the postmodern world.
McCarthy uses father and son as a true mankind relationship because the
father exposed his true love amidst all pressures in the post-apocalyptic world. The
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father and son lives only for the present life, the father no longer cares for the future
living. In dark earth the man comes out of all the happiness and become a real father
by giving protection, love and sacrifice to his son and makes his living worth forever
and continues their journey in focusing their survival. McCarthy‟s attraction towards
new themes and characters prove him as a pessimistic writer inspires every one
through writings.
Thus, the end of the world was a desirable, rather than horrors. However, as
the world moved into the twentieth century, and we saw modernity give birth to
that God would save the world from corruption quickly gave way to a reversible end,
in which human civilization will simply collapse into nothingness McCarthy‟s south-
west fiction within these opposing apocalyptic ideas, renewal and salvation without
vested cultural concerns. Through these four novels, the author suggests that the
characters face some kind of conflicts and poignant nature both in the evil and
McCarthy wants to give guidance to lead life in general but he doesn‟t care
for the simple things or simple incidents. McCarthy‟s vision describes that how he is
interested to deploy elision and enigma in his storytelling to provoke and challenge
the readers. McCarthy‟s after accused of offering a black, blood drenched, and
nihilistic vision of human life. His thoughts are framed as scientific reflections that
images. McCarthy accepts that the unconscious played a role in his own writing.
McCarthy once disclosed that he is not a fan of authors who do not “deal with issues
of life and death” for McCarthy that is not literature that deals about only good and
joy. A lot of writers who are considered well, McCarthy consider as strange writer
violence and horror. McCarthy dispensed a unique and stylish version of American
characteristics: violence existing outside of the law and alienation. Living in the
oppressive and harsh environment of the American frontier and undeveloped parts of
characters if the characters are supposed to uphold the law either turn against their
own benefits or have a tendency to fail. McCarthy‟s philosophy is living away from
society is the only way to grow and evolve as a person, and often McCarthy‟s
characters have to most development when they are at their loneliest. These three
American.
excessive violence either performed by or enacted upon the novels main protagonist.
Each of his novels attributes moments of physically violent acts, usually related to a
instincts override human beings when they life become aggressive that is the
theme of expressing violence through the characters of fugitives and criminals like
Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Man, Lester Ballard in Child of God, Culla
In The Road the father and son travelling across post- apocalyptic world of
America, the unnamed protagonists compelled to meet strange people and sometimes
rise to violence. In order to survive, when the father and son encounter with strangers
on the road and in a house, the father use his rifle and kills the stranger. Here
McCarthy proves that protection is head of all human instincts and it is clear between
the father and a stranger, in the world all people live or together to survive and
enhance their chances of growing. The father as a head he wants to protect his son and
The circle of life dialectic of the human and the inhuman form that is visible in
and their complexity, the concept of life‟s circulatory balances the appearances of
strangeness that reflect from every character. Cormac McCarthy has not given much
quests for meaning, identity, truth and all moral and immoral values for the ground
the centrality of the human being in the world as important of their concern.
and tragedy, like McCarthy‟s novel. The Road exposes the post-apocalyptic word and
the natural and unnatural disaster. The man and boy are the agents of the God in
McCarthy‟s The Road. In Wole Soyinka‟s play every character are the agents of death
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like a river goers and meet their fate in a hazardous road. Wole Soyinka portrays the
characters, that they choose their way for death by possessing the external pleasure. In
McCarthy‟s The Road, even though there are evil characters the father and son shows
true love but the entry of death cannot be stopped in both the novels. Both Soyinka
and McCarthy crafts death as the main object in the dark world and which exist in the
postmodern world.
The human being is exposed as meaningless when they do not understand the
value of life, every human being strive for their own human desire, endeavor and
striving for meaningfulness but as per the fate of every human from birth to death it is
like a recycling of the past, presented the future. In Outer Dark Rinthy as a female
character indulged in such kind of innocence is unaware of what has happened and
also what will happen in the future. Her aim is to pamper the abandoned child, but she
could able to find her kind till the end of the novel. Likewise the incidents will not
occur on everyone‟s desire those who are unaware of the life‟s view.
In Child of God Lester has changed his entire character because of his home
and the farm has been auctioned of making him homeless. This motivates for him to
enter in murdering sexual mistreatment of their dead bodies that filled by utter
consideration of loneliness that makes him crazy interfuse the human and inhuman in
terrifying alliance of violence and destruction. The extremeness‟ and perversity of his
evil acts, which activate the moral perspective, turn the social foundation of
grotesque, the deformation of all that is human by humans into something grounded in
all anthropological facts homeless Lester‟s life is filled with full of evil and become
dead. Thus the mystery of evil is heightened in the mystery of human life.
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In the life of human being, the human value gets much importance and that is
based on the human life as well as the earning potential and other endurances. Birth
and death is the main incidents which every human being faces and in McCarthy‟s
novels death plays a predominant role and the value life is repressed. In Child of God
and No Country for Old Men, the members of death incidents increased and also in
other novels dark themes reflect only through profound horror and death. Thus
McCarthy‟s novels depict disastrous life of the people who are affected by extreme
McCarthy pictures the kinds of evil in all areas like religion, ethics,
philosophy and psychology. The good and evil is a very common dichotomy and
mingles with the goodness and if the evil is usually perceived as the dualistic and
opposite of good. If the good prevails and the evil is defeated, in McCarthy‟s novels
the characters and dark themes give no space for any goodness. The characters in all
the novels of McCarthy suites for the phrase „survival of the fittest‟. But in recent
days the youngsters or any age group people accept the life as what they have or they
have experience. McCarthy‟s analysis of theme and character is a great illustration for
the people who are not satisfied with what they have.
Human Life with Special Reference to Cormac McCarthy‟s select novels is the great
representation of the approachable work with all the social evils which is extent in all
over the world. In the competitive world people are experiencing any kind of distress
and forced to lead the life and that is inconsistent by everyone but the situation makes
everyone to lead the life. All the ways of presenting strange world, evil and
everyone ignores when they lead their life happily. McCarthy as a foremost writer
focuses on the environment and to bring into awareness about the victims.
McCarthy represented evils and dark nature that triggers everyone‟s mind to
think about the other side of the world where everyone feels and realizes the sorrow
novels it is clearly given that joy and sorrows not inter connected if the evil fate is
strongly fixed into one‟s own life. His aim of giving awareness about the wrong
doings and also the author insists that how people should get redemption from their
sin and getting redemption from the is like a long term goal which if one‟s fate is
telling all the extreme horrors with its hallowed traditions. Every country has literary
geniuses and philosophers who present the realities and unrealities as well as the good
and bad. McCarthy‟s writings alienated because of his dark themes and strange
portrayal that leads the novels into full-fledged theme which makes the author more
focuses both the positives and negatives equally but the positives focused much than
the negative part. But in McCarthy‟s novels focuses the maximum struggle of human
beings life with conflicts. The relationship of the characters much involved in making
the situations horrible. McCarthy gives no space for positives and happiness even
though it happens that is few moments. This is the great thing that the author‟s
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focuses for knowing the victims in any situation and by giving awareness to the whole
The epitome of lustrous life and the portrayal of dark world through every
individual character are exposed. The best example characters are Lester Ballard in
Child of God, Culla and Rinthy in Outer Dark. Lester involves in extreme intolerable
situations like an innocent child. As the title suggests Child of God, knowingly or
unknowingly Ballard continues his mistakes and at last everyone realizes Ballard‟s
secret plans for doing evil things and at last he was caught by the police. Thus in all
novels the author speaks about the qualities which are gender problems and abuses
Everyone has the curtain behind their life which may be good or bad that will
be screened to the public. People who experience the good will not be cared and the
people who experience the dreadful experiences will be taken into great account. The
postmodern and gothic writer gives the impression of dark world and the incidents
presented in his novels shows the sample evidence about the human character. But
takes the tremendous risk of applying all dark themes which explains meaningless life
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of the human beings in the meaningful world which gives the awareness for all the
McCarthy through his novels represents the kaleidoscopic view of the world
by describing the nature of the characters and nature of the world. The human
emotions being everyone have some destiny to achieve something within their life
time. McCarthy talks about fate of the people only in the dark world and their survival
in the life.
The life is immortal, but the human beings are mortal, the life span of the
human may differ and is determined by both the abstracts like happiness and sadness.
McCarthy‟s description clears the convergence of violence and horror, the divergence
The great care of McCarthy as a twentieth century writer pictured the concept
relationship with the humanity. Through his novels McCarthy confesses horrors of the
evil world and gives awareness about the causes and redemption from sin. By this
redemptive nature Cormac McCarthy distinguishes himself from other writers and
Unlike other writers who give more priority to positive side of human life, McCarty
projects only the negative approach of human life in all his novels. Thereby he creates
awareness to the readers that every human being should follow morals and ethical
values so as to live in harmonious society. There are few areas still the future scholars
probe into. Like psychological aspects, style and sociological impacts of his writings.
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McCarthy creates different kinds of dark themes that has the affective ridicules in
all themes. All the evil characters which give some moral and thought provoking
intermingled with the concepts like life, evil, death, deal with producing all human
emotions. Each and every novel illustrates different kind of disasters that is