RT Article
T1 "I'm a man of this time": Categories of Sin and the Shadow of Dante in Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men
JF Christianity & literature
VO 68
IS 4
SP 539
OP 558
A1 Griffis, Rachel B.
LA English
PB Johns Hopkins University Press
YR 2019
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1672133025
AB Criticism on the nature of evil in Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men (2005) has acknowledged the precarious moral position of Sheriff Bell, often creating sympathy for the character who resigns at a crucial time. My article argues that the novel's literary ancestor, Dante's Inferno, offers a way of reading this novel through categorizing the sins of the three main characters: Moss, Bell, and Chigurh. This categorization suggests not only that Bell is guilty of acedia, one of the seven deadly sins, but also that this particular sin elucidates the sheriff's meaning when he calls himself "a man of this time." Although more noticeable sins, such as Moss's impulsive theft or Chigurh's disciplined treachery, drive the plot and captivate readers, Sheriff Bell's acedia is the prevailing danger to morality in the novel.
K1 Catholicism
K1 Cormac McCarthy
K1 Dante
K1 Acedia
K1 Morality
K1 Sin
K1 sloth
DO 10.1177/0148333118821457