Can Greed Cause Destruction: No Country for Old Men
When watching the movie, No Country for Old Men, there were a few scenes where the character’s actions were somewhat questionable. As you watch the movie, you can see that the majority of the characters were after the same things. Money and Anton Chigurh. The majority of the characters really only care about themselves and what they want. Anton Chigurh is the best example, then Llewelyn Moss being the second. Both of them go after the things that they want without caring who gets in their way. Greed can cause destruction. These two men are great examples of that. Without thinking of the outcome for other people, greed can cause many terrible things. With this movie in particular it is about the lives of other people. Money is one of the biggest things that can blind a person. Being blind to the world around you and only caring about you and only you can be dangerous. So the question is, can greed cause destruction?
Within the first few minutes of watching, No Country for Old Men, you can see where the character’s actions, as well as their morals, were somewhat questionable. If you watch the movie closely you can see. Llewelyn Moss is one of the main characters of this movie. He was hunting in the desert when he comes across the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong. He is on top of a hill, looking down with his binoculars when he sees a few parked vehicles. All around Moss are dead men that were shot, as well as the means dogs. Moss looks into one of the trucks and he sees a Mexican man that is still alive and takes the man’s weapon. The man in the car keeps asking for “aqua” repeatedly. Moss keeps telling him that he does not have any water, as he goes to the back of the truck to see what is in there. Moss asks the man a few questions about the drugs that are in the back of the man’s truck, but he answers very little. Moss is then on the lookout for the last guy who ran from the shootout. Moss is on a path and sees a big tree. He knows the last man must have gone there to get some shade from the hot desert heat. When Moss gets up to the tree he finds the man dead with a briefcase next to him. Moss opens the briefcase and finds two million dollars inside. He takes the briefcase to his truck and takes it home. This is where the whole story starts to unravel.
When Moss was out hunting and he saw all the remains of the dead men and dogs from the drug deal gone wrong, he sees the one man who was still alive. He even goes up and talks to the man a little bit. Moss takes a few of the dead men’s weapons as he is going through. Why does he take many of the dead men’s weapons, to keep them for himself? The man was close to death and kept asking for water, but Moss keeps telling the man that he does not have any water. A few minutes later in the movie, one of the scenes is Moss coming home, with the briefcase of two million dollars, to his wife Carla Jean and he hides the money around the house. When Moss is home, he keeps thinking about the man in the truck who kept asking for water. He goes out into the middle of the night again, with a jug of water, back to the scene. Many think that his conscience was getting to him and maybe that he even felt bad about not helping the man at first, but it seems more real that he went back to see what else he could find and take. Moss had already found the two million dollars, so there was no other reason for him to go back out there unless he thought that he could find more money. The man in the truck most likely had been dead by then. When Moss goes back to the scene of the drug deal, he is chased by a few men in a truck, who were most likely looking for the money. A lot of people wonder why Moss even took the money. “He’s a welder living in a trailer home, with a wife who works at Walmart.” Moss and his wife are hardly wealthy or even considered middle class. He most likely took the money so he could have a better life for himself and his wife. When Moss took the money, that opened up a gate for terrible things to come in. As the movie goes on he does his best to keep the money from Anton Chigurh and even buys himself some new stuff. It seems like all he cares is about the money, and keeping it for himself. He even sends Carla Jean off to stay with her mom while he is running from Chigurh.
Anton Chigurh is a mysterious character. In the beginning of the movie, you are not exactly sure who he is. All you really know about him is that he will kill anyone who gets in his way with a captive bolt pistol as his weapon of choice. Chigurh’s greed did show, but not as the same as Moss. Moss showed greed in a different way, in more of an obvious way. With Chigurh’s greed, you have to look a little closer.
Work Cited
- Cooper, Lydia R. “‘He’s a Psychopathic Killer, but So What?’: Folklore and Morality in Cormac McCarthy’s ‘No Country for Old Men.’” Papers on Language & Literature, vol. 45, no. 1, Winter 2009, pp. 37–59. EBSCOhost. Web. 16 Nov. 2019.
- King, Vincent Allen. “‘What Have You Done. What Have You Failed to Do’: Aesthetic and Moral Complacency in Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men.” Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 65, no. 4, Fall 2012, pp. 533–556. EBSCOhost. Web. 16 Nov. 2019.
- Tavel Clarke, Michael. “The New Naturalism.” Studies in American Naturalism, vol. 9, no. 1, Summer 2014, pp. 52–78. EBSCOhost. Web. 16 Nov. 2019.
