Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Grew Up… in a long line of law men. Bell was sheriff of the county by the age of 25, a thrilling achievement and vindication of his family’s legacy.
Living… in a world he no longer understands. Bell likes to hear about the old-timers, but lately feels like he’s becoming an old-timer himself. For this reason he’s considering retiring to live with his wife Loretta on their Texas ranch.
Profession… a proud third generation lawman, Ed Tom Bell has spent his whole life confidently maintaining the peace. Still, as he’s beginning to slip into old age he feels that the forces he’s required to face are changing: “The crime you see now, it’s hard to even take its measure. It’s not that I’m afraid of it. I always knew you had to be willing to die to even do this job. But, I don't want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don't understand.” While dedicated to law and order, Ed Tom Bell is beginning to feel overmatched by the evil he is required to face on a daily business – a feeling that has only grown since he’s begun pursuit of the ruthless assassin, Anton Chigurh.
Interests… a dry jokester and collector of stories, Bell likes to spend time gossiping and swapping stories with other lawmen. When at home, he likes to ride horses with his wife.
Relationship Status… happily married to Loretta Bell. The two have a mature, stable relationship, but Bell is tight-lipped about his troubles. Loretta has a difficult time helping her husband deal with his increasingly heavy burdens.
Challenge… maintaining order in a world that seems more dangerous and depraved with every passing year. Bell’s latest case has him on the trail of local welder Llewellyn Moss, two million dollars in drug money, and one of the deadliest men in the world. Ed Tom Bell is no coward, but he finds himself increasingly uncertain about how to combat the new brand of evil exhibited by Anton Chigurh.
Personality… wise, coolheaded, and introspective. Bell often expresses himself with a dry and dark sense of humor. He’s spent most of his life as a lawman, and feels like he’s seen almost everything before – until he’s surprised by the new levels of violence and cruelty in his area. He’s reserved and dedicated to his work, but after years of serving in what he views as battle between good and evil, he is visibly tired.
Get to Know him in...
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Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon dead bodies, $2 million and a hoard of heroin in a Texas desert, but methodical killer Anton Chigurh comes looking for it, with local sheriff Ed Tom Bell hot on his trail. The roles of prey and predator blur as the violent pursuit of money and justice collide.
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In his blistering new novel, Cormac McCarthy returns to the Texas-Mexico border, setting of his famed Border Trilogy. The time is our own, when rustlers have given way to drug-runners and small towns have become free-fire zones.
One day, a good old boy named Llewellyn Moss finds a pickup truck surrounded by a bodyguard of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollars in cash are still in the back. When Moss takes the money, he sets off a chain reaction of catastrophic violence that not even the law–in the person of aging, disillusioned Sheriff Bell–can contain.
As Moss tries to evade his pursuers–in particular a mysterious mastermind who flips coins for human lives–McCarthy simultaneously strips down the American crime novel and broadens its concerns to encompass themes as ancient as the Bible and as bloodily contemporary as this morning’s headlines.
No Country for Old Men is a triumph.
