Joseph Leites

Goodman Period 7

AP English Literature

25 April 2017

Comparative Analysis: The Great Gatsby, No Country for Old Men, and One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s Nest

Trust is a quintessential part of any relationship.

Once a reader departs into the realm of a new story, the reader can only know what is true

through the narrating voice. From the beginning, the reader allows the main character or

narrator to fabricate the story. However, there’s only a certain degree of belief instilled in those

characters, because authors often subtly provide reason the question the judgement of even the

most seemingly innocent characters. Between the novels of The Great Gatsby, One Flew Over

the Cuckoo's Nest, and No Country for Old Men, the authors construct main characters and

narrating voices that can be seen as untrustworthy through their own limiting factors: Nick

Carraway and his obsession with Gatsby himself, Chief Bromden from and his literal fogged

judgement, and Sheriff Bell, Llewelyn Moss, and Anton Chigurh from with their own twisted

concealed motives for carrying out their daily obligations. These characters are utilized as

vehicles to further the plot and to highlight an underlying theme of manipulation and misplaced

judgement.

The first example of any character having unclear or unjustified outlooks on their story comes

from Chief Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Bromden mentions his own fogged

judgement, and he is one of the two aforementioned characters who acknowledges his own

issues. Bromden focuses on his prescribed medicines and his convoluted past, and how they

affect his ability to think clearly. He says that his own possible issues of undiagnosed PTSD due
to fighting in World War II could be what is causing these problems. He says outright, "Nobody

complains about all the fog. I know why, now: as bad as it is, you can slip back in it and feel

safe. That's what McMurphy can't understand, us wanting to be safe," (Kesey 114). This right

away suggests that Bromden may not always see what is happening in front of him as accurate,

and therefore provides evidence that he isn’t quite as trustworthy as he seems.

Similarly to Bromden, the characters of No Country for Old Men all seem to have some sort

of clouded judgement. The difference, in this case, is the object of interest and the focal point of

the story, a briefcase full of money. Upon his discovery of the briefcase, Llewelyn Moss thinks to

himself and the author says, “He sat there looking at [the money] and then he closed the flap

and sat with his head down. His whole life was sitting there in front of him. Day after day from

dawn till dark until he was dead. All of it cooked down into forty pounds of paper in a satchel,”

(McCarthy 8). The initial fact the Moss doesn’t make a decision to leave it shows that he’s at

least, in some way, inclined to take the money. Moss has been trying to find a way to move up

in life, and this briefcase allows him a chance. However, he doesn’t know what taking this

briefcase entails. While Moss is dealing with his problems, Sheriff Bell talks about his job as

sheriff, and how he hates the lack of rules. He says, “There’s no requirements in the Texas

State Constitution for bein a sheriff. Not a one. There is no such thing as county law. You think

about a job where you have pretty much the same authority as God and there is no

requirements put upon you and you are charged with preservin nonexistent laws and you tell me

if that’s peculiar or not,” (McCarthy 33). Bell has just given way to see his sense of manipulation,

as he, the sheriff, calls himself God. Sheriff Bell always seems to be the only morally sensible

character, but this instance proves that even Sheriff Bell is subject to slipping. He always details

the frustrating aspects of his job and tells stories about his past as Sheriff and makes all odds

against him, but he just now shows himself to be God. The third storyline following Anton

Chigurh on his goose chase of Moss ends with his murder of Llewelyn’s wife, Carla Jean.

During this final encounter, Chigurh says to her: “Every moment in your life is a turning and
every one a choosing. Somewhere you made a choice. All followed to this. The accounting is

scrupulous. The shape is drawn. No line can be erased. I had no believe in your ability to move

a coin to your bidding. How could you? A Person’s path through the world seldom changes and

even more seldom will it change abruptly. And the shape of your path was visible from the

beginning,”(McCarthy 157). Chigurh, at this point, has provided every reason for himself to be

considered a psychopathic murderer. He’s angry at the world, and the scariest part is that he

knows it. Chigurh, in this quote, makes a point to tell Carla Jean that this was her destiny, when

in reality, Chigurh didn’t have to kill her. He did anyway, and it was as abrupt as can be. All

three the characters in the novel use some kind of manipulation to tell themselves that what

they’re doing is ok: Moss’ reasoning for not leaving the briefcase; Bell’s thoughts on himself and

his position; and Chigurh and his mindset on why he should kill all of the people he does.

In a far less gruesome sense, Nick Carraway’s addictive issue is in the form of Jay Gatsby.

Carraway, over the course of the novel, continually champions Gatsby for his charitable attitude

and lavish lifestyle, and never seems to find anything wrong with what Gatsby’s efforts are, or

what he does for money. Gatsby’s 1920’s party life entails alcohol, and lots of it. That might

seem okay under today’s standards, but the 1920’s was the Prohibition Era. That means that

alcohol is illegal. So, that’s problem. Nick is also blind to the fact that he’s been helping Gatsby

change a woman, in Daisy Buchanan, who is now willing to be unfaithful to her husband to be

with Gatsby. Regardless of whether or not she is “in love” with Gatsby, she is still married to

Tom, and Gatsby has no right to take her away from him. In his own twisted way, Tom

Buchanan loves his wife, even if he doesn’t show it too well. In his great style of thought-

provoking verbiage, Nick says of Gatsby: “The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long

Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if

it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father's business, the service of

a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a

seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the
end,” (Fitzgerald 98). Fitzgerald’s long and detailed development of both Gatsby and Nick’s

characters has led to the point where Nick is so infatuated with Gatsby that he is willing to try

and convince himself, and thereby the reader, that Gatsby’s done nothing wrong. In reality, Nick

doesn’t see all that Gatsby has done to create the largely dangerous situation that he’s put

everyone that he’s surrounded himself with in.

The connection between all three of these stories hinges on the fact that all of these

characters, in some way, shape or form, have deceived or manipulated the reader into thinking

that they themselves, or some other aspect of the story, are better than they really are. These

deceptions are then used by their respective authors to drive forward their story, and these

characters are the metaphorical bulldozers that pave the way for new plot devices to come

through and new themes to be explored.

Nick’s obsession with Gatsby, along with their budding friendship, allows Gatsby to convince

Nick to arrange a subtle meeting between Gatsby and Daisy. This is the beginning of Gatsby’s

attempt to take Daisy away from Tom, as mentioned before. However, Gatsby’s reasoning is

clear enough to Nick that Nick just goes along with the plan. This meeting, orchestrated by Nick,

causes a As his plans start to fall apart towards the end of the story, Nick confronts Gatsby to

try and convince him to stop chasing Daisy by saying, “I wouldn’t ask too much of her... You

can’t repeat the past,” (Fitzgerald 100), to which Gatsby responds, “Can’t repeat the

past?...Why, of course you can!”. Gatsby’s incredulous response somehow convinces Nick to

stay, and eventually doesn’t change his opinion on him. Nick, in his final confrontation with

Gatsby, says to him, "They're a rotten crowd...you're worth more than the whole damn bunch of

them put together.", (Fitzgerald 149). This final conversation with Gatsby shows that Nick’s

perception and memory of Gatsby is cemented as a positive, and ultimately, proves that Nick is

not as trustworthy as he presents himself to be in the opening of the book. He allowed himself to

be deceived by Mr. Gatsby, and from there, he manipulated his own thoughts, and thereby the

reader’s.
 In a familiar token, Chigurh’s skills of manipulation allowed him to stay out of trouble yet

again, after Moss died, and Chigurh was hit by a car. Chigurh encounters two teenage boys

who witnessed the accident, after he crawled out of his damaged car. Instead of taking their

offer to help, like a sane person, Chigurh just pays one kid for his shirt and says, “Take it. Take

it and you dont know what I looked like. You hear?”, (McCarthy 158). Just after that, the kids

watch him hobble away, and they find Chigurh’s gun in his car. Instead of leaving it, the

following ensues: “What they saw was Chigurh's pistol lying in the floorboard of the truck. They

could already hear the sirens in the distance. Get it, the first one said. Go on. Why me? I aint

got a shirt to cover it with. Go on. Hurry.” (McCarthy 158). This pushes forward the plot in the

fact that Chigurh has yet again found a way to escape his punishment for taking out his

personal hate on the world, and highlights a new theme of the vulnerability of the meek. Chigurh

has taken advantage of not only these children, but to anyone he’s come across, including

Llewelyn and Carla Jean Moss. Concurrently, Sheriff Bell’s interpretation of his own failure to

close this case comes with more blame and hardship of his job. Bell has written his last tidbit

after his retirement, and he talks about Chigurh, saying: “This man had set down with a hammer

and a chisel and carved out a stone water trough to last ten thousand years. Why was that?

What was it that he had faith in? It wasn’t that nothing would change. Which is what you might

think, I suppose. He had to know bettern that. I’ve thought about it a great deal…And I have to

say that the only thing I can think is that there was some sort of promise in his heart,” (McCarthy

183). Bell has conceded his failure in this instance, and by his word choice, it’s obvious he’s still

looking for sympathy for himself. Bell proves now that he is willing to feed off of a bad situation

and somehow make himself out to be the victim. Meanwhile, Chigurh has escaped after being

hit by a car and Moss was shot to death by Mexican gang members. Bell’s manipulation, at this

point, makes him out to be almost another antagonist. This is a classic case of the hypocrisy of

authority, as Bell just wants to be the one people sympathize for.

 Another culprit of Bromden’s thought process changing is Randle Patrick McMurphy himself,

and it comes from one of McMurphy’s biggest ruses: the World Series game. In this instance,

McMurphy has convinced the Big Nurse to let the men of the ward watch the World Series.

They get a little too rowdy, and all of a sudden, she turns it off. Then, Bromden says, “They’re

trying to act like they still got their eyes on nothing but that blank TV in front of us, but anyone

can see they’re all sneaking looks at the Big Nurse behind her glass there, just the same as I

am. For the first time she’s on the other side of the glass and getting a taste of how it feels to be

watched when you wish more than anything else to be able to pull a green shade between your

face and all the eyes that you can’t get away from,” (Kesey 129). Bromden begins to see how it

might be okay to fight the authority of the ward, rather than just letting everything happen so

dimly around you. Bromden now begins to evolve, and is more willing to support McMurphy in

his efforts to subdue and aggravate the Big Nurse. There is now an emerging theme of

progress, and whether it is real or illusionary is up to the reader.

Between the three stories discussed, the common element is this: manipulation. The main

character(s) of each story is and are influenced by something from the beginning of the story,

and therefore will in some way manipulate the reader into forming the same opinion as them

about whatever it is that influenced that. This goes both ways, too. Nick tries to convince his

audience about how great Gatsby is, whereas Chigurh wants to prove how awful the world is.

Bromden wants to help fight the power at hand, and Bell wants to scrutinize others and their

situations to earn unwarranted sympathy. Each character has their own pros and cons, but in

the end, a reader’s interpretation of the main character or narrator will ultimately determine their

interpretation of the story itself.