3 Great Moments
The book I'm reading right now is No Country for Old Men and one of the moments is the examples that were given for the coin flip scene. If you aren't familiar from class then, the scene begins with the antagonist Chigurh walking into a gas station eating a bag of peanuts after he has already killed several people. The reason this scene is one of the best moments in the book is because it really sets up who this character is. He has no rhyme or reason, he makes sense in his own world and that is all that matters to him. After asking his questions, he pulls out a coin and tells the man to call it. The man hesitates but then finally calls heads and calls it right. Chigurh tells the man to put the coin anywhere but his pocket because he will lose it, and it is his lucky coin.
Another great scene in the book is when Chigurh is waiting for Carla Jean Moss after he has already killed her husband. He is waiting for her and he begins to tell her that her husband missed the opportunity to make a deal to let her live. That if he was given the money he would not kill her. He brings out his coin again that he only used one other time in the book. He tells her to call it. She says “The coin don’t have no say in it – it’s just you.". This makes him pause but then come back with he "got here the same way as the coin did.”. She says you don't have to do this and he replies with everyone says the same things. (Throughout the book before he killed people they would say "you don't have to do this") I really like this scene because you get the personality of Chigurh coming out again but this time, someone doesn't play his game where he only knows the rules. She says she will not call it and as far as we know, she died for it.
The third great scene from the book is yet again when Chigurh sits down with his victim but this time with a fellow murderer, Carson Wells. He is a scavenger or a roamer, a mercenary that kills for money. Wells is looking for Chigurh and the money as well, he thinks he knows the situation and how to handle it but when he is confronted by Chigurh he soon realizes that he as been outmatched. This time there is no coin flip and there is no mercy. The reason I like this scene so much is because its like one hunter talking to another hunter but one of them knowing that they are going to die. Wells tries to offer him money in a desperate attempt at life even though he knows the outcome. Chigurh even mentions this, that there would be more pride in acknowledging his demise. Wells then says "you don't have to do this" in which Chigurh just shurgs it off (because everyone says that) and kills him and moves on.
