No Country for Old Men is one of those books where you start expecting things and just end up getting slapped in the face with what you didn't think of. The characters importance and the complete dismissal of the importance in human life. It shows the world changing in ways that people can't use what worked before. Everything is constantly changing and evolving in a way that is a steep learning curve, you either sink or swim. The most important idea I took away from it that wasn't really new to me but I found a new meaning to was that life keeps going on and the world keeps spinning. Characters in the book either die or keep living and either way it doesn't really matter. This is all symbolically represented through the character Anton Chigurh. He is neither swayed by drugs, money, mercy, or begging. He is not moved by emotion or people's influence and it does not matter to him what is said or done because everything that will happen will just...happen. He is not here or there, he just, is. From on looking eyes, he is just a killer that can't feel emotion towards anything or anyone. But, looking closer, to me at least, he is just swimming. He has his own set of rules and perceptions of how life is and what his role in it is. It's a free for all, it is a survival of the fittest. Cars, drugs, money, relationships, and civility aren't factors when it comes down to basic survival. In the beginning of the book he steals a police car and pulls over a man to swap cars. He tells the man to get out and he does. I don't know if its just me but if someone pulled me over with a police car and was holding a weapon and told me to get out, I'd say piss off and keep driving. Does this make me dismissive or speculative? It's just common sense. Chigurh walks on people like ants because they are abiding by the rules that society has set for them, like sheep. When he is sitting down with another "killer" and he has him sitting there knowing he is going to die, he says "Alright. Let me ask you something. If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?". It really is thought provoking to think about that. If all your rules and precautions brought you to being killed then what was the point of those rules. The same man that he was killing said something before that perfectly sums up who Chigurh is and what he represents. " No. You don't understand. You can't make a deal with him. Even if you gave him the money he'd still kill you. He's a peculiar man. You could even say that he has principles. Principles that transcend money or drugs or anything like that. He's not like you. He's not even like me."
The other character that is influential in a way that the best way I can put it is, our sinker. Chigurh swims and Officer Bell sinks. After chasing the mess that Chigurh left and not finding anything or helping anyone. Only seeing drugs being spread and people dying. He chooses to retire and basically give up on it. He was "outmatched" by Chigurh and there was no real way to stop what was coming. At the end of the book he says this, “I always thought when I got older that God would sort of come into my life in some way. He didn't. I don't blame him. If I was him I'd have the same opinion about me that he does.” This is probably one of the best quotes in the book because of how real it is. How down to earth this man is. He thought that just being older or living life that he would have some sort of knowledge that one else had, and in a way he did. He realized that he wasn't going to just know things, or that something higher above him would take influence. Life is made up of days and every step you take is forever. (9 out of 10)
