Apocalypse in Two Senses: McCarthy’s No Country and The Road

Authors

Mike Awalt, Belmont UniversityFollow

Abstract

The work of Cormac McCarthy has always contained apocalyptic elements. These elements become dominant motifs in two novels produced in the early 21st century – No Country For Old Men and Th e Road. These two novels imagine the nature of the apocalypse in two tenses - the present and the future. No Country For Old Men is set in the current world of our experience. Though its time is in the recent past (1982), it is still the metaphorical time of our present. It is a world marked by border difficulties, drug wars, and a changing culture. The Road is set in an undefined future in which the world as we know it has been destroyed. The two stories are connected in that the future represented in the second novel, is a result of the apocalyptic struggle going on in the present as represented by the first novel.

Keywords

Humanities Symposium

Recommended Citation

Awalt, Mike (2010) "Apocalypse in Two Senses: McCarthy’s No Country and The Road," Belmont Humanities Symposium Journal: Vol. 1, Article 4.
Available at: https://repository.belmont.edu/humanities_symposium_journal/vol1/iss1/4