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Epitomization of Poignant Nature and Paradoxical Elements in Human Life

with Special Reference to Cormac McCarthy’s Select Novels

Thesis submitted to Bharathiar University in Partial Fulfillment


of the Requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH

By

L.MAHALAKSHMI

Under the Supervision of


DR. M. LEELAVATHI M.A, M.Ed, M.Phil.., Ph.D.
Head, PG& Research Department of English
L.R.G. Govt Arts College for Women
Tirupur-641604

PG & RESEARCH DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

L.R.G GOVERNMENT ARTS COLLEGE FOR WOMEN

(Affiliated to Bharathiar University)

TIRUPUR – 638 604

TAMILNADU, INDIA

JULY 2018
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Chapter-V

Summing up

Literature is a skill which explores the life delights and struggles of human

behavior. In everyone‟s mind thoughts and images comprises in different angle but

multifarious ideas and thoughts displays only in the minds of literary geniuses through

their flair of writing. The literary knowledge comprises worldwide by indulgences of

great writers and their literary talents. Every country has its own native writers to

prove its own immerse skills in various genres.

In literature every writer concentrates his own concept and deliverance of style

in writing and exposing their thoughts through their own or common method.

McCarthy as a postmodern writer follows his own method of writing. McCarthy his

interviews declared that opera he likes to use „simple declarative sentences‟ with

capital letter, periods an occasional comma, a colon for setting of a list, he never

prefers other punctuations like semicolon, quotation marks for dialogue and believes

there is no reason to use‟ blot the page up with weird little marks, he aims is only in

filling the meaningful content which is an illustration for human life.

Even though Cormac McCarthy is the heir of great writer William Faulkner,

he has proven his own talents about the world by analyzing the incidents happen in

and around. Cormac McCarthy is the latest example of the most American of

phenomena, and become an excellent that is rarely known by the public. His novels

are grotesque in subject matter and the language is bombastic and also he has given

the great strength to the southern literature and makes his writing a valuable one.

McCarthy‟s vision of creating awareness is to not only the people in America but to

the people in all over the world. McCarthy‟s writings aim to give awareness on
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various extreme problems like cruelty, perhaps man‟s most important apparent quality

in the world the author creates. The cruelty related to man is constant in literature and

to other fairs of mankind and especially in McCarthy‟s novels.

All his ten novels are the representation of the adventurous, Nihilistic, and

atrocities with full of horrors and as well as the use of language that makes him as the

distinct significant writer, and also a self-confident writer. McCarthy as a twentieth

century writer focuses on implementing the corruptive world through different

concepts and characters which are remarkable through his imaginative technique of

post-apocalyptic world and the other extreme horrors which are exposure of the

world in the future.

All the novels of McCarthy show the powerlessness of humanity. He likes the

forces of natural mutability. He likes to give and create awareness about the serious

depraved human being to defeat the horrible forces. As directed opposites, love and

death have been closely linked with life and literature. His description of work and

theme he proves that there is meaning in life or the search for it is a worthwhile

activity. McCarthy‟s and unnatural consequences and his view of the world and

people in it make him explain all the situations and consequences and he feels it an

rough vision but it has a strange power to displace all others.

McCarthy like other writers explored world in different perspectives each and

every work of McCarthy has proved dynamic representation of the authors‟ skill and

frustrating mind of the author about the world‟s pathetic situation that human beings

are unaware of what is happening around them. Each and every character created by

McCarthy gives the great admiration and wonder to feel everyone pathetic about the

reality in their life and to be cautious in all endeavors that will happen in future
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adventures. Thus each of McCarthy‟s work teaches lesson about the human beings

and the other incidents that is natural or unnatural.

McCarthy is a great writer and innovative story teller; he shows his brilliant

knowledge about animals and landscapes finally the carnival figures, by making the

world to see in different aspect even though the author has given about black

characters. Though his creation of black focuses only the dark world that maximum

the people are being unaware of it. Everyone is engaged in their duties and

responsibilities in their day to day activities.

McCarthy‟s novels composes an extended journey, his depiction of characters

travel the mountain roads and forests of east Tennessee, and the city streets of

Knoxville and surrounding of Mexico and the southwest of America. McCarthy‟s

characters does not have any important purpose of wandering and the desire of the

characters withdrew or to explore or to escape, but the journey on the road and the

destination that they have is death. That is proved in every novels and the unwise

survival about the innocent people in all over the world.

Thus McCarthy‟s views of themes in the silent world and the world‟s reality

with the movements of the religious imagination. The incest, infanticide, necrophilia,

drunkenness and other physical deformities McCarthy explores as a bleak place in

fiction and shows his creativity. He sees the world as in wild place in this fiction and

godless world and uncommon love for the common people. Without any goodness

how people suffer in the world as given as great examples in McCarthy‟s novel.

McCarthy‟s world of imagination for the readers has immense in all works

exclusively pictured.
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As a follower of great writers and the great genius of American Literature, He

does not bothers about the gossips and other unwanted luxurious things, personally he

suffered lot in his earlier life with small earning, and finally, he started his career. His

fame rose by writing the novels like The Road, Blood Meridian, Borden Trilogy,

gradually he become famous by writing the notable works.

McCarthy‟s dark themes that no one is willing to expose, even McCarthy

made the readers to involve in the dark world and not only in the four novels but also

has the evil and horrors sprinkled in all other novels. The four novels that thesis dealt

with the researcher to expose all the evils surrounded in the world, that every reader

should have the tolerance to tackle the situations like McCarthy‟s hero‟s faces in their

life. There is a strong stress of meaning in McCarthy‟s novels, but the experience of

significance does not communicable abstractions. In McCarthy‟s world the existence

seems to introduce the evil suffering and to prohibit the life from the evils.

McCarthy‟s characterization and the plot construction is very tough to

everyone have that kind of situations and emotions in their own life or creating such

kind of imaginary stories. The world is full of entertainment in every normal person‟s

life, the horror and atrocities experience not by all. McCarthy‟s way of representation

of the world gives very great awareness to world and to the family members who

survive with lot of struggles.

Each and every character is the unique representation of traits which is good

or bad, by knowing the importance of relationship, friendliness and taking great

problems with the struggles, all are exposed the picture of multifarious problems that

is ignored by everyone in the world of realities and imagination even though the

author don‟t much in generally with all his novels. His focus on the world is in angle
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of atrocities is existing till now. Through the portrayal themes McCarthy wants the

society to disturb the individual. Its great lesson for everyone who reads McCarthy‟s

novels and they may come to know, of the world becomes only from the society not

from individual.

Outer Dark and Child of God exposes the nihilistic attitude of human belief

and other are in the great exposure of theme and characterization in like Lester

Ballard in Child of God experiences all and loneliness through the novel. Ballad

experiences all the evil by making his character as evil person with full of strangeness

and evil in the entire novel. Lester Ballard is the fine creation Cormac McCarthy‟s

protagonists as anti-hero. The terror carved and mold in Ballard characteristic

qualities as non-human character.

The surrounding and the environment are the reason for developing Ballard‟s

strangeness that will not be visualized anywhere else. Everyone can wonder that‟s

why the author has pictures that kind of character and all other abnormal character

also pictures the theme of novel and the Child of God, Ballard as such a child adopted

with murderous and corruptible man survives boldly in the savior county mountain

making everyone scared by strange look and strange behavior. V.S. Naipaul as an

Indian writer has explained the culture entitled „India- A wonder civilization‟ likewise

Cormac McCarthy portrays wounded culture and civilization through his novel by

presenting dark themes that gives everyone to be aware of all kind of evil.

The theme of relationship is portrayed in both excellent and dreadful manner.

Thus like the other writers, McCarthy exposes the divergence and convergence in his

novels. Divergence through dark themes with horrors in Outer Dark and Child of God

which cannot be accepted by everyone and the convergence through the real
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relationship between the father and son in The Road, and love relationship between

John Grady and Alejandra in All the Pretty Horses. McCarthy is very much particular

about mentioning the horrific situations of a person without education or without any

family background how their life is spoiled and urges everyone to the perspective of

good environment.

McCarthy as a post modern writer, his themes are unique than other writers

and clearly focuses about the dark themes of corruption and evil. The extreme horror

focused in the novel Outer Dark and the theme of incestuous relationship between the

brother Culla Holme and his sister Rinthy Holme. Culla Holme as a responsible

brother commits such kind of corruption with his sister and not able to develop the

positive attitude and notable to focus the good things. The sister Rinthy‟s shyness she

is not able to reveal anything to others. The two siblings‟ division starts from the

beginning and it continue till the end of the novel.

The author creates the dark world through this evils, the second great crime of

the siblings is leaving the new born kid. Here McCarthy says the importance of the

relationship and about the real world how the people are casual in making mistakes

and lead their life happily, but in American custom the siblings they refuse to lead

happy life and feel the guiltiness and spoil their entire life.

In The Child of God McCarthy gives apt example for the people who come out

of the society by force and how the victim has become an aggressive person. Now

days there are lot of crimes are happening in the world only because of alienation,

lack of love and care. Lestard Ballard as lonely person forced to come out from the

family and involve in extreme horrors which everyone cannot even imagine in the
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whole world. The author as a great writer of exploring distinct themes in tested to

create such kind of cruel character is to create awareness among the whole world.

No one escapes from any kind of crime of punishment through the life history.

McCarthy sculptures the character Lester Ballard to give awareness about the people

and especially the family members‟ responsibility of taking care of anchoret wherever

they are and whatever they may be McCarthy is very strong in depicting the importance of

every individual in the society and in the family.

In Outer Dark the siblings realize their mistakes, their own risk they are come

out of the group and become alienated from the society and face lot of disasters still

the end of the novel. Child of God, Lester Ballard a childlike character faces the

problem in the very beginning of the novel and settled in Mount Savior country, his

crime starts from the mountain and take all kinds of crime which is strange than

others. Hence the nihilistic and disastrous life can be experience by the protagonists in

both the novels. McCarthy is very strong believer of nature and human nature makes

everyone to wonder the happening of evil that accumulate in all over the world.

McCarthy also interested in dealing with horses and horse riding like John

Grady in All the Pretty Horses. McCarthy is explained the traditional manpower‟s and

other lost values, Horses, freedom, the importance of land, deep and spontaneous

humanity of the Mexicans, tradition from other‟s life especially in America. In

Camaraderie view of McCarthy expresses the surreal horror and violence in the

surreal world. McCarthy‟s elevated purpose does wonders for deserts, mountains,

freezing winds, night landscapes and the tangibility of food and other necessary things

needed.
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McCarthy‟s imagination is perhaps more important than his characterization.

McCarthy‟s characters are most sympathetic, and his nature exist wholly on its own,

all themes are indifferent to human purpose or desire. McCarthy‟s symbols are never

less than artfully innocent and its simplicity in its themes allow the reader to have the

deeply, serous, uncomplicated, romantic values. John Grady in All the Pretty Horses

is a great example, and his association with the concept of idealism. The

consciousness of the hero become stable, the situations makes him to be sensational

for certain period of time. Everything scattered and again he will face lot many

problems for each and every mistake the situation is created only by the people to

oppose if there is any inconvenient.

In the Pretty Horse, Duena Alfonsa, Alegendra‟s great aunt is friendly towards

Grady and admires him, but at the end she opposes him as a suitor for niece not

because of his nationality, and wrong class or because is penniless but because his

luck is bad. The old lady studies about the world and culture, and become as monk of

the family and the society that very important in Mexico and is culture and values.

In All the Pretty Horses the overpowering evil to good that McCarthy shows

reverse in it because of showing dignity and women culture that is followed in

Mexico. McCarthy‟s each and every novel the crime and sad incidents happens inside

the family and that is become the great hallmark of his novels. The incidents happen

on social conditions that they meet the world without the meditation of law, morality,

religion or politics. McCarthy‟s novels impart these dispositions are natural persistent

it shows the unpracticed democratic world. The intension of every character is forced

in their own mindset that is the main reason for every human being they never enter

into the new world.


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The Road received remarkable success as a most powerful novel for its

survival of the father and son in the post-apocalyptic world. In the year 2007

McCarthy received Pulitzer Prize for the poignancies of the wasteland have received

sufficient enough popularities and deals about McCarthy‟s engaging pathos of life and

death scenario. Critics also speak about the novels of power that constantly identified

and in the reflection of content, viability of moral system.

McCarthy„s survival and struggle of the character representation is not just for

the body but the ways of relating of being human. In a world without any basic needs,

without any community, beauty mere persistence is a draggle, to persist without

having the life preserving habits of violence of those they encounter on the Road

seems a moral as these who involved in immortal activities encounter the problem and

it moral for the violence.

Everyone is able to see the powerful sacrificial love between the father and the

son throughout the novel. The love and concern to protect the soon is an unimaginable

caring which loses in the real world. Many critics said that McCarthy‟s novel a tale of

nothingness, but the whole world makes the human life meaningful, in the barbaric

environment father and son‟s relationship and their survival in the struggling gives the

faith and hope.

The father‟s love alone empowers the son‟s faith emerges hope for humanity‟s

future. That exposed in a great manner by showing the father‟s protection towards his

son each expresses and teaches love as a concern for the needs of the beloved, the

father has attained distress in many attempts the safeguard the boy in all horrors.

Though his humble conversation, parental acts, the father keeps himself conformed

his love and offers his child education in this virtue. The father enjoys the
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pleasantness by offering his child those meager gifts in the barren world affords. Like

every father, McCarthy shows the importance of relationship of father

Here is a great depiction of love need and longing to give what is good to the

beloved whose goodness that love affirm goes further to father. The father‟s moral

instruction takes the form of inculcating the virtue of love through love of habitual

acts concern for the other and it is good food and the secular understanding of

goodness and relationships, one can believe the from divine life through spiritual

relationship.

All the Pretty Horses as an adventurous and inspirational story of Cormac

McCarthy which has some strangeness that has the motivation and challenges. The

protagonist as an outside searcher for meaning, by seeking the true relationship

through love and relationship from Hacienda family faces lot of struggles. His

survival becomes purposeless at the end of the life. His expectation of true from the

ranch owners get failed because of some rituals and family culture were followed in

the family rules and regulations inside the family. The love which receives by the

protagonist is controlled by Alegandra‟s great aunt. As an obedient she unwillingly

obeys her aunt‟s words. After some receiving some advice from her aunt then, she

decides her fate. Here the family responsibility is getting much importance at same

time the protagonist John Grady is become helpless and careless by his family

members and lover except his true friend.

All the Pretty Hordes is a contradictory to The Road. In The road the father‟s

true love is exposed then in All the Pretty Horses. The father becomes helpless to his

son, thus in anyway Cormac McCarthy‟s protagonist in his novel fragile relative in
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their status and torn between opposites are both lonely and belonging, brutal and

victimized native and knowing sometimes caring or less caring.

Cormac McCarthy as a contemporary writer aware of the concepts and the

relationship has explained the society and its changes and its needs for the survival in

the hopeless world. The humanistic values of care and solidarity are placed within a

decanted postmodern humanism. The strangeness and mystery of life can appear and

be contemplated in the characterization of All the Pretty Horses. The human

repression is exposed much like any other thing and the redemption is only through

friendship which is continued forever.

Cormac McCarthy is a subsequent writer follows the writing style and usage

of words; syntax and even similar themes in few novels like William Faulkner and

become the heir of him. McCarthy‟s writings prove himself as literary genius and his

frankness through the portrayal of characters. McCarthy‟s makes all his writings as

notable one and makes everyone to view about the world in all the angles. The

affirmation of life and of humanity, however severe the experience and the horror in

humanity is the great obstacle as a main theme to be found in his marvel.

In American Literature literary geniuses have given a wide range of

knowledge through their creativity by explaining variety of themes. The researcher of

any literature can analyze the theme, style and even scrutinize characters intellectually

or psychologically. This proves the researchers skill and originality through the thesis.

The researcher aims in finding new theme with new focus on aiming new ideas given

by the new writer. Cormac McCarthy as a writer of dark themes presents the nature of

the peoples mind and also the nature of the world.


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The passion towards the nation McCarthy has given new shades to the

literature, many critics have said that “McCarthy‟s writings are ambiguous”, but his

uniqueness in explaining the strangeness like violence through horrors and natural

disasters make everyone to feel the real world experiences in every individual‟s life.

McCarthy‟s unique theme of post-apocalyptic genre gives clear understanding of the

future world with emptiness. McCarthy‟s inscription is completely of unfinished

sentence and, completely lacks quotation marks, and frequently embeds dialogue in

the middle of paragraphs. McCarthy‟s incompatible use of apostrophes for reduction

of the passage makes the readers become exasperate.

The evocations of unjustifiable destruction and nihilism require only for the

readers remain cognizant of the violent impulse that inherent in all mankind. The

description of most horrible incidents are understandable by using simple and short

language divide of emotion gives reader authority for future proceedings. Critics point

out that McCarthy‟s third person narrative style functions as an impartial observer,

documenting inhumanity in much the way a historian records history.

McCarthy received no fame in the beginning, many critics asserts that he has

very few scope in writings. After writing few novels his literary reputation is

increased and by winning the National Book Award in 1992. In Contemporary

Literary Criticism,Vol.204, critics quoted about McCarthy, “Despite being

championed by such luminaries as Saul Bellow who, when sitting on the 1981

McArthur Fellowship panel, lauded McCarthy‟s style as „absolutely overpowering use

of language, his life-giving and death- dealing sentences‟(141).

McCarthy‟s vision of bleak world determines the readers to the mature mind

to tolerate the difficulties and to understand about the metaphysical world. McCarthy
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is a writer who could make an informal text to present the end of the world and the

richness in his writings become dull. McCarthy uses unique style of writing narrates

the whole idea of specific themes in relating various moments that no one interprets in

their work.

In the quarterly conversation review, issue no 16, entitled Cormac McCarthy‟s

Paradox of Choice: One Writer, Ten Novels, and a Career-Long Obsession by Scott

Esposito viewed that,

Oates and Donoghue do not resort to the tired and superficial cliché,

dreamlike; rather they use the language of dreams to describe fiction at

once teasingly intimate yet also fundamentally alienated from us. They

acknowledge the often surreal quality of McCarthy‟s fiction but imply

an underlying sensibility beneath the chaos. Indeed, both quotes cut

down two of the most persistent critiques of McCarthy: moral

ambiguity and a lack of interest in penetrating beneath surfaces. Pascal

and Freud offer rejoinders: dreams, like McCarthy, may appear

unbound, but they have a power over us that contradict that claim.

Still, as with many misstatements there is kernel of truth to the

criticism of McCarthy: few other authors working over the last forty

years have so thoroughly restricted themselves to the simple act of

giving things a new form. That McCarthy does this with a singular

ability is inarguable; even his detractors will grant the inherent beauty

of McCarthy‟s prose. (151)

McCarthy‟s own interest of character making and people‟s real suffering

through their own decision making and the crucial incidents which are exclusively
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portrayed in his novels. His themes are specified for the conflicts which everyone

encounters in the journey of life. The conflict may come through good or bad but the

consequences are violent and make everyone to experience intolerable situations.

Cormac McCarthy does not give room for happiness and success his major

themes deals with conflicts like horror, violence, deception and poverty. The darkness

in everyone‟s life represents in the form of their own fate, throughout the novels of

McCarthy. There is lot of themes that deals with the great concepts and ideas that

creates a new history or new world by critics‟ opinion or the researchers‟ opinion.

McCarthy in his novels has given a different kind of concept by creating new kind of

evils that no one thinks of surviving in the extreme dark and violence. There is no

catharsis or any intermission in his novels.

Cormac McCarthy as a famous writer of American Literature important

themes of self-determination, faith, courage and the quest for meaning, self-identity in

the world of extreme evil. This research entitled “Epitomization of Poignant Nature

and Paradoxical Elements in Human Life with special reference to Cormac

McCarthy‟s select novels” discussed about all the good and bad, joy and sorrows

represented in McCarthy‟s four novels. McCarthy‟s writings thus prove all extreme

horrors that prevail in all over the world. The main elements in human life are

survival. His themes also give conclusion for the phrase survival of the fittest. In all

the countries mortal begins or the survival characters and they live their life for the

survival by ignoring the bitter incidence.

In McCarthy‟s novel conclusions are ambiguous and open ended, mysterious

shifts into alternate realities that implies about secret truths or redemption, one

immediately thinks about his triggering theme. McCarthy has not mellowed of his
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view of life, he conforms world by telling all cold and hard themes through his

novels. The portrayal of world in McCarthy‟s writings has the jerk on thinking by

every incident which occurs in every novel. The brother and sister‟s careless life in

Outer Dark, Lester‟s peculiar animalistic activities in Child of God and the

cannibalistic attitude of the strangers in The Road and in the same way positive

nature like the true relationship in All the Pretty Horses and the true father and sons

relationship again in The Road.

The common concept in McCarthy deals about religion, poverty, violence

death and horror. His vision in writings is to expose the world full of distinctive

features. McCarthy deals in all his works of literature especially in themes like

violence, horror, sex alienation and death. McCarthy a responsible writer focuses on

giving awareness about modern aesthetic values and how the people missing the

values. McCarthy‟s interest in violence and horror reflects the realities of conquest

and nations building. All his novels speak about the incidents. McCarthy with his

own distinct vision reflects the sensibilities of his romantic pre-romantic features.

The Human repression is a biggest thing that happens within the human beings

all over the world. Most of the families in the society, people are fails to do anything

in their life. McCarthy as a representative of creative writer gives the moral and

ethical values and portrays the human expression in both novels in The Road, the

chief character faces the natural disaster and being repressed from the society, the

father and son‟s relationship is redefined. The true love and sacrifice of the father

gives the great sentimental touch for the novel and makes every reader to be

empathetic.
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In All the Pretty Horses, the repression starts from the beginning of the novel

and the protagonist is lament for the true love and affection which is questionable

everywhere in the world and even in the families. John Grady Cole it becomes a fate

that he cannot able to retain his relationship in with his parents as well as his lover

Alejandra. The true friendship is maintained as a good relationship till the end of the

novel.

Thus all McCarthy‟s novel‟s discusses the causes of major conflicts and

people‟s eccentric experience in the world. The four major novels of Cormac

McCarthy deals with various kinds of strange events and its causes give the awareness

about the self and the environment. Since everyone live in the world filled with moral

and ethical values should have the awareness of various kinds of evil which represents

in the form of our own character. McCarthy visualizes the ultimate scene of cultural

entities and illustrates.

The foregoing chapters have shown how the author portrayed social and

personal crisis in his major novels Outer Dark, Child of God, The Road, and All the

Pretty Horses respectively. The sensitivity of the author very particular about his craft

is predominantly evident in the manner, in which he expresses the different kinds of

themes through different characters. In this respect the four novels which deals major

themes McCarthy has received much influence among critics and also from the

readers. The naturalistic view of McCarthy‟s characters depicts omnipresent, wary

figure, knowledgeable about science, religion, and the natural world.

This thesis discusses about the major conflicts as predominant theme that

every individual experiences in their life cycle. All novels of McCarthy distribute

different arguments and he is known for his sparse use of punctuation and use of
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simple language. The extreme horror in the novels of Outer dark and Child of God

deals the personal life of the protagonist in which the sufferings and its causes clearly

and how the brother and sister relationship become profane and their sufferings moves

into extreme level. The characters are exposed to live alone in the forest cabin and

their life begins and leads the mysterious life. The novels Outer Dark and the Child of

god focuses the conscious struggling of the individual characters and their efforts to

achieve the desire and thought in their mind.

In Outer Dark, their incest is the great fear which both doesn‟t want to expose

their original background. Every hero or Heroine has the desire to achieve something

great in their life. In Outer Dark their desire to getting redemption from their sin and

they never expect more than that.

Cormac McCarthy as an American novelist, his novels spanning around the

southern gothic western and post-apocalyptic genres that deals about the dark world.

It is significant to note that McCarthy‟s physical and literary movement towards

west continuous the violent and nihilistic path targets the apocalypse which has paved

the way to prove how the society and the individual is affecting and flourishing in the

environment and the cause of psychological defect through these two novels

especially Outer Dark and Child of God.

The nihilistic attitude of Culla and Lester Ballard‟s intolerable experiences

and sufferings through their misdeeds is shows the position of the world with great

troubles. In Outer Dark the two main characters Culla and Rinthy as siblings become

pregnant and delivers the baby, without letting anyone to know about their

relationship. Feeling disgrace Culla leaves the baby in the woods by telling lie to his

sister that the baby is sick and dead. Rinthy came to know when the baby is alive she
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tries to move from the cabin in search of the kid. Culla as a brother tries to find job for

his earnings and came to know that his sister has moved out of the cabin. He starts his

journey by searching job and his sister Rinthy. The post-modern edifice explains the

reality of cruel difficulties and responsibilities. Culla Holme as a brother shows his

responsibility of finding his sister Rinthy.

I was hunting my sister, he said. She runs off with this here tinker.

Little old scrawny looking kind of a feller. Herself she‟s just young. I

been hunting her since early in the spring and I can‟t have no luck

about finding her. She ain‟t got anybody but me to see about her. They

ain‟t telling what all kind of mess she‟s got into. She was sick

anyways. She never was a real person. (177)

Though their relationship is spoiled by their incest, the brother wants to

protect his sister and feel pity about her health and survival. Rinthy moves out of the

cabin with intolerable pain in her breast and the bleeding from the chord. This shows

a kind of revulsion and makes them to withdraw from the societal activities. The

brother and sister relationship gets much importance in our country like India, the

same way in Outer Dark both the siblings wants to maintain the good relationship but

their desire of sexual infatuation drugs which is supported by anyone in the world.

After committing the mistake only they feel guilty conscious and separated from each

other without informing and also they fail to lead a happy life in the society.

The innocence misleads and makes them to move far away from the society

and makes their entire life dark. There is common psychological belief of every

individual person‟s self-dignity is lost and their total life will be lost. If the person will

be pampered by the members of the family or if she/he lives in the good environment
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their mind will be distracted and they never allowed involving in such kind of evils.

But in Outer Dark the brother and sister couldn‟t able to get such kind of relationship

or the environment, the evil desire forced them to involve in such kind of activities.

McCarthy shows the influence of both William Faulkner and Flanery o

Connor. The confrontation of evil continues throughout this novel. Every work of

literature deals with evil and the characters suffer in the extremes and encounters

nightmarish landscape. They do not have the real understanding of purpose in doing

so. Rinthy as a partner of sinner tries to sustain herby searching the kid. Culla on the

other hand his guilt concerning the child drags him and takes on a universal identity.

While Culla wandering in the forest appears the dark figures, escaped murders may be

the supernatural being like the shapes of evils.

Culla is followed by the persons and inevitably blamed. Rinthy is driven by

her maternal instinct to find and care for her child able to meet strange people but they

offer help to Rinthy by giving food and shelter but as mother her deep suffering of

lamentation about her baby is disturbed her mind and both of their life ends in horror.

Both brothe and sisters life begins with evils and it continued till the end. Though

they are special characters they did not get much importance.

The scared relationship is seen through father and daughter, brother and sister

but everything in the postmodern world changes upside down. The horror of evil is

represented in this novel through the incestuous relationship and the powerlessness of

humanity to face the society after committing these kinds of mistakes. McCarthy as a

post-modern writer proves that the outlook of human being and the hesitance for

survival in the post- modern world.


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In spite their incest both the brother and sister struggle for their own wishes

but their aspiration and likings is not that much great. In the materialistic world, the

whole world lives only for fulfilling their great desires like love, money and all the

luxuries, McCarthy as a postmodern writer does not cared for the importance of

materialism and his main aim is to focus the flaws and evils that is occurring in every

nook and corner. People may ignore that kind of mistakes in a simple way, or they

may be separated from the society and here all the prejudices from the surroundings.

From the ancient to modern there is a tendency that affected person is cornered and

they will come up or suppressed in their life.

In Outer Dark the brother and sister experiences the utter horror which is

unimaginable and no one can survive in such kind of life. Culla Holm and Rinthy

Holm moves for different kinds of search to get succeed for their small desire but

their survival continues independently by experiencing all the hurdles. They focus

their life like hackneyed eyes wherever they move. McCarthy‟s portrayal of the dark

world and the other side of the miserable life of the people is exposed through these

characters in Outer Dark.

Culla Holme and Rinthy Holm has long standing but they cannot succeed and

they are not willing to involve in leading any further life. Both of their wishes are not

fulfilled and their life ends in tragedy. From the beginning to till the end there is no

natural catastrophe in the novel and there is no great achievement between the

characters. They themselves decided their fate.

Outer Dark combines the mythic and the actual in a perfectly executed work

of the imagination. Richard B.Woodward‟s article dated on19th April 1992 in the

New York Times Magazine claims that Outer Dark as a novel of twisted nativity and
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the story about the girl‟s search for her baby with the product of incest with her

brother. At the end of their independent wanderings through the rural south the

brother witnesses, in one of McCarthy‟s appalling scenes, hands of three mysterious

killers around a campfire;

McCarthy as an American writer focuses to expose the evil creatures which

are intolerable in the world. Like other American writers McCarthy expresses horrors

through murder, grave-robbing, cannibalism and other outrages and these kinds of

evils dealt in this novel full of darkness, sin and guilt. The survival of the human

being may change according to the situation but in McCarthy‟s novel the situations

are like evil and bad ill omen. McCarthy‟s target of evil is explore to the world is

clearly given in all the situations.

Child of God is another main novel which flashes the profound sin and evil

through the characters of selfishness and obsessive attitudes. The main character

Lester Ballard represented as the main offender become involved in all such kind of

intolerable evils like voyeurism, sex and murder. These kinds of evil incidents created

by the McCarthy to understand the people about the world and how an individual

changes the mentality when he is not able to get the affection and when he cheated by

others. Everyone feel sympathy and worry about his loneliness, instead to feel

annoyance. The parable makes everyone to comprehend the reality of the central

character. These situations clearly bring out the meaning of the title Child of God.

McCarthy contemplates the changes of the world and the characters of real

world through his dexterity in portraying of characters in his novels. In Child of God

the protagonist Lester Ballard represents as a strong evil which is not accepted by
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anyone. If a man or woman becomes evil because of the situations and lack of care

and affection what they expect from the parents or from the environment.

In Child of God Lester Ballard as a main figure owns land as his main

property deceived by the auctioneer and pushed to stay in mountains of Sevier

County. He struggles a lot to protect his land but without getting support from anyone

he left unwillingly settled in the mountain. The strangeness begins from the beginning

to end and every situation gives space for Ballard to involve extreme horrors. Unlike

Outer Dark‟s protagonist Lester Ballard arguable faces his guilt with courage. HE

identifies himself as Culla can never do. McCarthy also portrays that Lester serves a

larger purpose, and makes himself a necessary agent.

The strange act of killing the people, having sex with corpses makes everyone

to scare and to feel clumsy and it shows the deep agony of an alienated man. These

are the causes of loneliness and careless relationship. These kind of intolerable

situations make everyone to feel shame of the human behavior and the human society

with full of selfishness. The strangeness starts Ballard‟s life is after his land

abandonment and that time there is no one for him to support automatically Lestard

becomes a stranger then onwards. The Sherriff did not give any remedy and he won‟t

find any alteration for Lestard but here the problem starts from the Sheriff, Lester

becomes the person alienated and involve in all horrors. Here the author stresses the

problem and exposes extreme failures and causes of the evil society.

In Cambridge Companion to Cormac McCarthy, Steven Frye in the review of

Carnival, Comedy, and Containment states that, “McCarthy‟s direct use of the

carnivalesque can be traced to some of earliest works and appears fully rendered in

Child of God” (116) by mentioning Ballard becomes carnival figure. Every sufferer
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like Ballard gets the suppression and cornered by the family members but McCarthy

portrays Lester Ballard as central figure and by this he crafts the hidden horrors

caused by different kind people and situations.

McCarthy‟s works portrays nihilistic life of the human beings through his

theme and characters in the novels of Outer Dark and Child of God. The sufferings of

every individual and their sad life that they focus only the negative thoughts and the

mind never allow them to think positive, automatically the sufferer moves in the dark

world. In McCarthy‟s novels dark world is represented in an extreme level and deep

sorrows are the causes only from the human beings. The man made life is destroyed

only by the man. God represents as a keen listener of the world and make everyone to

experience the good and bad by providing opportunities.

The nihilistic attitude and living out the society grows when the person life

cursed, every human being faces evil in their normal life, but if a person is pushed

into the extreme evil or if he experiences the intolerable horrors they move out of the

society and behave themselves as a cruel person which no one expects in their life.

Every experience in the bleak world is like a great adventure and gives some hope

fullness for every individual. The person who experiences strangeness in their life will

face lot of problems to the extreme and experience terrible behaviours. But the choice

of living in the world and tackling the problems depends on the environment and

psychological character. The acceptance and unacceptance based on the environment

and circumstances

McCarthy‟s portrayal of American brutality split in the closure off

sentimental understandings of the past; page after page, as bodies pile up, readers

wonder at McCarthy‟s ability to imagine new means of describing human atrocity.


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McCarthy renders this brutality as awe-inspiring and as such, has been cursed of

producing violence and honors. McCarthy‟s use of violence thus makes difficult for

the tradition of the western hero. The horror from other author‟s works also

experience the struggles but the end it will good but in McCarthy‟s novels every hero

does not have the happy end.

McCarthy not only as a writer who expresses the intricate thoughts and ideas,

he himself experienced some strange situations like his own son‟s separation from

him in the dark world without anything to direct the future life. Being as a father

McCarthy dreamt of the dark world and his son‟s survival and sufferings with lots of

love and affection. McCarthy‟s presentation of the world with horrors and natural

disasters is the great deployment of creating awareness among the populace through

his novels by exploiting unique dark themes. The epitomization of dark world is

accurately designed through diverse themes.

In the novels of The Road and All the Pretty Horses McCarthy deals the father

and son‟s relationship paradoxically with two different situations of family life. In

The Road the father as a protagonist loses the family and survives in the post-

apocalyptic world to fulfill his responsibilities by showing his true love to his son and

proves himself to be a real hero. The father and son‟s relationship successfully

maintained throughout the novel.

The novel gets criticism from everyone; it is a novel of violence and horror.

But the novels main characters focus about showing true love between each other.

The father dreams about his wife with his thought and always keeps a bird‟s eye view

on his son where ever he goes. It‟s a great thing that sharing of food and love is never

even reduced in any kind of situation or whatever the obstacle they meet. When they
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walked through the house they find plenty to enjoy in the post-apocalyptic world.

They find something to stop their hunger temporarily feel good that they had

something to stop their temptations.

He looked back at the boy. He said. Come down.

Papa?

Come down. Come down and see……

What is all this stuff, Papa?

Its food can you read it?

Pears

That says Pears. ……..

Do you feel okay? (154).

The father and son enjoyed very much and they would like to live in the

house, they bath, they eat, they play and they slept. They enjoyed a lot but they stay

there for only few days. The father was always conscious about the strangers and felt

that their happiness will be destroyed if they are not moving from that house and the

man plans to move away from the house immediately. Their enjoyment stops from

there itself and the father‟s main aim is to protect his son from the strangers. This

shows the sincerity of a responsible father. The fathers‟ responsibility become very

less when they meet sufferings they felt like everything they lost in the world and

involve in some horrors and they ignore the family responsibilities. But in The Road

father‟s perseverance of bringing up his son is all extreme struggles is a great example

that McCarthy given to all irresponsible father‟s in the world and every father become

much more responsible towards their children.


216

Most of the McCarthy‟s novels hold different moral code and each novel deals

with the different conceptions of morality and ethics. The chief characters in each

novel McCarthy works to challenge common morality and ethics. The extreme

gruesome violence is explained in all the novels and finding the redemption and

salvation in the philosophical framework through sufferings and by telling the

importance of values in life. His other two novels like grotesque, pastiche and

paranoia. By constructing these kinds of themes McCarthy provides the clear example

and awareness for moral framework and guidelines for their lives in the society.

There are lot of atrocities are happening in our country like India and other

countries. It may be thorough insufficiency of love and care. The Road is a

representation of individual father‟s true love towards his son amidst all horrors and

atrocities. When they meet kind hearted people they will help them by providing food

and other necessary things. The sense of humanity is interpreted here. At the same

time the father as a protector ready to face the horrors to save his son‟s life amidst all

horrors.

In the novel Outer Dark Culla Home as a brother tries to search his sister to

give some protection. In All the Pretty horses Lacy Rawlins as a friend suffers for the

whole life for the sake of his friend. The sense of human race is exposed through

these kinds of love and care. Whatever the affection and love the character tries to

give and show good concern among their relationship that may modify at any cause if

the situation changes. Hence the relationship gets broken into fragments. That is apt

between the brother and sister in Outer Dark, and between the lovers in All The Pretty

Horses.
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McCarthy characterization of true loving father and son in the post-

apocalyptic world is an interesting character as no father son cannot prove, there may

father who can express their love but in present postmodern world the true parental

cannot be expected. As in McCarthy‟s another novel All the Pretty Horses, the

protagonist lives along with his parent he cannot get that much love from both parents

than his grandparents. McCarthy proves the limitation that in the materialistic world.

The hero‟s father in this novel also a good natured and very calm, lovable but

he cannot safeguard the love that remains only for short period. In both novel the evil

characters harmful deed represents as violence and also in the road the natural disaster

is the additional horrible evil experienced by the father and son. But whatever struggle

they face their relationship is re defined .though it is proved when he thinks about

killing his own son because as a father he does not want to give his son to the evil for

the death too. Even though All the Pretty Horses has acquired the theme of

romanticism, the theme of love ends in failure. Though characters may supports for

the idealism and the practice of pragmatism prevails in the surface of love

relationship.

In All the Pretty Horses the true love is received from his friend Lacy Rawlins

instead his family members. When he moved to Mexico and works in the ranch and

his love towards the ranch owners daughter Alejandra retains only for few days that is

the period Cole felt like living paradise after coming out of his grandfather ranch as

paradise. So Cole‟s parental care, and his care retains temporary but the true

friendship continuous till the end. As parents they are devoid of responsibilities.

Rawlins as like other friends shows the loyalty that is impeachable that too only to
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John Grady like other friends. These two boys are very supportive to each other. As

true friends the boy pursue their journey whatever they experience in their life.

The violence and the horror faced by Grady are the failure love from his

parents and separation from his lover. This is kind of mental horror faced by Grady

and the physical horror he experienced from the police people that too because

unknown Jimmy Blevins becomes a partner and because his criminal and evil mind

Grady and Rawlins caught by the police and then the love affair with the ranch

owner‟s daughter Alejandra. But the tenderness and true love of Alejandra tells her

aunt to support Grady to come out of the prison and by promising that she never met

her love anymore in future. Likewise Grady and Rawlins released from the prison.

Grady‟s love for Alejandra never fade but Alejandra is from the tradition

brought up family wants to save and earn good name for her father and family. But

Grady laments for his love till the end by thinking about his grandfather. Father and

lover is the realism that everyone should have realized in their mind. But Alejandra as

a female wants to protect her father‟s values and abide the rules of the family. Thus in

these two novel whatever horrors faced by them the relationship is redefined. In The

Road further leaves his son to a new family with some hope, in All the Pretty Horses

John Grady separated from his family and lover stand-alone by thinking about his

future with some hope.

In both the novels The Road and All the Pretty Horses, the protagonist thinks

about their past life memories and feels sad for the separation of family members.

John Grady sheds his final tears for Abeulla, his family servant and also like his

grandmother. At last he was even his lifelong friend Rawlins is not there, the author
219

makes it clear that john Grady is now a creature of the contact zone of the border

itself.

John Grady mourns for a Mexican on United States soil in the neutral zone of

the grave yard. Grady belonged to United States, belonged briefly in Mexico but was

removed he has become psychologically and emotionally stateless. Daniel cooper

Alarcon comments the novel irony as „ it is suggestive of the familiar story of the

American male who leaves civilization behind to seek a different way of life in the

“wilderness” but unwittingly becomes an agent of colonization, transforming his

wilderness refuge into the very thing he sought to escape. John Grady‟s heroic

qualities, his horsemanship, his physical stamina, his capacity to endure the pain is in

contrast to McCarthy‟s other protagonists.

All the Pretty Horses is a more conventionally plotted novel when compared

to his earlier novels, the unusual characters and their dark and unconventional

behavior which encompass murder, infanticide incest, necrophilia, suicide and

cannibalism. These kinds of themes distract the readers from McCarthy‟s reliance on

archetypal structural devices including the journey and quest motives, they are

apparently episodic, occasionally picaresque progression of notwithstanding depicts

all the obstacles.

Unlike the other novels, All the Pretty Horses set in a world of comparative

normality, which is not to say that it is any less dominated by evil, anymore controlled

by rationality, logic or divine purpose than the other novels. John Grady never

understand the rapaciousness of the world, the divisions of the human heart are the

great struggle that occurs behind the thick walls of Mexico. This novel fundamentally

a Bildungsroman novel and follows the tradition Hawthorne, Twain, Melville and
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James, it is proved in John Grady‟s through desert and mountain on horseback into

the wilderness where innocence experiences the evil of the universe and risks defeat

by it. The same theme is in James Joyce‟s novels. John Grady as a young boy

experiences pain and sufferings, without the support of his parents and any one in the

family he survives and creates the new relationship.

It is assumed that human beings in the world are forced to engross the

malevolence and it is ignored by their own self before the mask of pleasure. That

leads everyone to involve in such kind of sin and think their environment is full of

entertainment. McCarthy clearly presents horrors of inhumanity and divine

relationship. This can be viewed in all his novels in The Road the father and son

maintain their humanity in the face of despondency, separation, and distraction of a

post-apocalyptic world through their strong and gentle relationship with one other.

While the man's care for the boy is continued till the end. So the love makes us a great

soul if everything happens good in the world.

In Wole Soyinka‟s The Road is a very complex play, a combination of comedy

and tragedy like McCarthy‟s novel The Road, he exposes the post-apocalyptic work

and the natural and unnatural disasters. The man and boy are the agents of the god in

McCarthy‟s novel. In Wole Soyinka‟s play every character are the agents of death like

way for death by possessing the external pleasures. In McCarthy‟s The Road even

though there are evil characters the father and son shows true love, but the entry of

death cannot be stopped in both the novels. Both Soyinka and McCarthy crafts death

as the main object in the world and which is exist in the postmodern world.

McCarthy uses father and son as a true mankind relationship because the

father exposed his true love amidst all pressures in the post-apocalyptic world. The
221

father and son lives only for the present life, the father no longer cares for the future

living. In dark earth the man comes out of all the happiness and become a real father

by giving protection, love and sacrifice to his son and makes his living worth forever

and continues their journey in focusing their survival. McCarthy‟s attraction towards

new themes and characters prove him as a pessimistic writer inspires every one

through writings.

Thus, the end of the world was a desirable, rather than horrors. However, as

the world moved into the twentieth century, and we saw modernity give birth to

weapons of global suppression, apocalyptic approach became pessimistic. The belief

that God would save the world from corruption quickly gave way to a reversible end,

in which human civilization will simply collapse into nothingness McCarthy‟s south-

west fiction within these opposing apocalyptic ideas, renewal and salvation without

God. The common interpretations of McCarthy are completely nihilistic with no

vested cultural concerns. Through these four novels, the author suggests that the

characters face some kind of conflicts and poignant nature both in the evil and

happiness. He negotiates between biblical and nihilistic apocalyptic modes before

coming to the conclusion, in The Road, that hope exists

McCarthy wants to give guidance to lead life in general but he doesn‟t care

for the simple things or simple incidents. McCarthy‟s vision describes that how he is

interested to deploy elision and enigma in his storytelling to provoke and challenge

the readers. McCarthy‟s after accused of offering a black, blood drenched, and

nihilistic vision of human life. His thoughts are framed as scientific reflections that

are visible in McCarthy‟s psychological analyses of character setting.


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Cormac McCarthy explains the unconscious site represented as an agent of all

the people interested in everyone‟s wellbeing proclaimed the intensions through

images. McCarthy accepts that the unconscious played a role in his own writing.

McCarthy once disclosed that he is not a fan of authors who do not “deal with issues

of life and death” for McCarthy that is not literature that deals about only good and

joy. A lot of writers who are considered well, McCarthy consider as strange writer

and also his writings are based on strange incidents.

McCarthy‟s works are apparent in explaining the main themes of love,

violence and horror. McCarthy dispensed a unique and stylish version of American

life. His view of an American-centric philosophy is based around three main

characteristics: violence existing outside of the law and alienation. Living in the

oppressive and harsh environment of the American frontier and undeveloped parts of

the country, the author presents violence as a necessary means of survival.

McCarthy gives little importance for law enforcements, his depiction of

characters if the characters are supposed to uphold the law either turn against their

own benefits or have a tendency to fail. McCarthy‟s philosophy is living away from

society is the only way to grow and evolve as a person, and often McCarthy‟s

characters have to most development when they are at their loneliest. These three

ideas are keys to McCarthy‟s view of understanding what it means to be free

American.

An observable and prominent theme of McCarthy‟s work is extreme and

excessive violence either performed by or enacted upon the novels main protagonist.

Each of his novels attributes moments of physically violent acts, usually related to a

character‟s self-preservation instincts. McCarthy exhibited how the animalistic


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instincts override human beings when they life become aggressive that is the

phenomena happens in everyone‟s life McCarthy made his writings as a habitual

theme of expressing violence through the characters of fugitives and criminals like

Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Man, Lester Ballard in Child of God, Culla

Holms in Outer Dark.

In The Road the father and son travelling across post- apocalyptic world of

America, the unnamed protagonists compelled to meet strange people and sometimes

rise to violence. In order to survive, when the father and son encounter with strangers

on the road and in a house, the father use his rifle and kills the stranger. Here

McCarthy proves that protection is head of all human instincts and it is clear between

the father and a stranger, in the world all people live or together to survive and

enhance their chances of growing. The father as a head he wants to protect his son and

as a strong person has to lead the life in challenging world.

The circle of life dialectic of the human and the inhuman form that is visible in

Cormac McCarthy‟s character building, he enriched terms by telling human stories

and their complexity, the concept of life‟s circulatory balances the appearances of

strangeness that reflect from every character. Cormac McCarthy has not given much

importance for sorest or individual characters humanize the world by focusing on

quests for meaning, identity, truth and all moral and immoral values for the ground

the centrality of the human being in the world as important of their concern.

In Wole Soyinka‟s The Road is a very complex play, a combination of comedy

and tragedy, like McCarthy‟s novel. The Road exposes the post-apocalyptic word and

the natural and unnatural disaster. The man and boy are the agents of the God in

McCarthy‟s The Road. In Wole Soyinka‟s play every character are the agents of death
224

like a river goers and meet their fate in a hazardous road. Wole Soyinka portrays the

characters, that they choose their way for death by possessing the external pleasure. In

McCarthy‟s The Road, even though there are evil characters the father and son shows

true love but the entry of death cannot be stopped in both the novels. Both Soyinka

and McCarthy crafts death as the main object in the dark world and which exist in the

postmodern world.

The human being is exposed as meaningless when they do not understand the

value of life, every human being strive for their own human desire, endeavor and

striving for meaningfulness but as per the fate of every human from birth to death it is

like a recycling of the past, presented the future. In Outer Dark Rinthy as a female

character indulged in such kind of innocence is unaware of what has happened and

also what will happen in the future. Her aim is to pamper the abandoned child, but she

could able to find her kind till the end of the novel. Likewise the incidents will not

occur on everyone‟s desire those who are unaware of the life‟s view.

In Child of God Lester has changed his entire character because of his home

and the farm has been auctioned of making him homeless. This motivates for him to

enter in murdering sexual mistreatment of their dead bodies that filled by utter

consideration of loneliness that makes him crazy interfuse the human and inhuman in

terrifying alliance of violence and destruction. The extremeness‟ and perversity of his

evil acts, which activate the moral perspective, turn the social foundation of

grotesque, the deformation of all that is human by humans into something grounded in

all anthropological facts homeless Lester‟s life is filled with full of evil and become

dead. Thus the mystery of evil is heightened in the mystery of human life.
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In the life of human being, the human value gets much importance and that is

based on the human life as well as the earning potential and other endurances. Birth

and death is the main incidents which every human being faces and in McCarthy‟s

novels death plays a predominant role and the value life is repressed. In Child of God

and No Country for Old Men, the members of death incidents increased and also in

other novels dark themes reflect only through profound horror and death. Thus

McCarthy‟s novels depict disastrous life of the people who are affected by extreme

evils and alienated from the society.

McCarthy pictures the kinds of evil in all areas like religion, ethics,

philosophy and psychology. The good and evil is a very common dichotomy and

mingles with the goodness and if the evil is usually perceived as the dualistic and

opposite of good. If the good prevails and the evil is defeated, in McCarthy‟s novels

the characters and dark themes give no space for any goodness. The characters in all

the novels of McCarthy suites for the phrase „survival of the fittest‟. But in recent

days the youngsters or any age group people accept the life as what they have or they

have experience. McCarthy‟s analysis of theme and character is a great illustration for

the people who are not satisfied with what they have.

The title Epitomization of Poignant nature and Paradoxical Elements in

Human Life with Special Reference to Cormac McCarthy‟s select novels is the great

representation of the approachable work with all the social evils which is extent in all

over the world. In the competitive world people are experiencing any kind of distress

and forced to lead the life and that is inconsistent by everyone but the situation makes

everyone to lead the life. All the ways of presenting strange world, evil and

outrageous incident in McCarthy‟s novels are the greatest representation that


226

everyone ignores when they lead their life happily. McCarthy as a foremost writer

focuses on the environment and to bring into awareness about the victims.

McCarthy represented evils and dark nature that triggers everyone‟s mind to

think about the other side of the world where everyone feels and realizes the sorrow

and melancholy through the representation of all evil characters. In McCarthy‟s

novels it is clearly given that joy and sorrows not inter connected if the evil fate is

strongly fixed into one‟s own life. His aim of giving awareness about the wrong

doings and also the author insists that how people should get redemption from their

sin and getting redemption from the is like a long term goal which if one‟s fate is

dogged strongly in one‟s own life.

McCarthy snaps how human civilization is special and how it is spoiled by

telling all the extreme horrors with its hallowed traditions. Every country has literary

geniuses and philosophers who present the realities and unrealities as well as the good

and bad. McCarthy‟s writings alienated because of his dark themes and strange

environment and strange characters. The character representations are unique

portrayal that leads the novels into full-fledged theme which makes the author more

interesting in his views.

The epitome of poignant is unique in the McCarthy‟s novels. Every author

focuses both the positives and negatives equally but the positives focused much than

the negative part. But in McCarthy‟s novels focuses the maximum struggle of human

beings life with conflicts. The relationship of the characters much involved in making

the situations horrible. McCarthy gives no space for positives and happiness even

though it happens that is few moments. This is the great thing that the author‟s
227

focuses for knowing the victims in any situation and by giving awareness to the whole

world through character representation.

The epitome of lustrous life and the portrayal of dark world through every

individual character are exposed. The best example characters are Lester Ballard in

Child of God, Culla and Rinthy in Outer Dark. Lester involves in extreme intolerable

situations like an innocent child. As the title suggests Child of God, knowingly or

unknowingly Ballard continues his mistakes and at last everyone realizes Ballard‟s

secret plans for doing evil things and at last he was caught by the police. Thus in all

novels the author speaks about the qualities which are gender problems and abuses

which should not exposed in future.

Everyone has the curtain behind their life which may be good or bad that will

be screened to the public. People who experience the good will not be cared and the

people who experience the dreadful experiences will be taken into great account. The

human repression is confirmed if it becomes serious situation. McCarthy as a

postmodern and gothic writer gives the impression of dark world and the incidents

presented in his novels shows the sample evidence about the human character. But

everyone in the world focuses on maintaining the happiness and enjoyment to

maintain some status.

McCarthy‟s depiction of conceptual evil through absurdly exaggerated

deformed or physically disguising images suggests that evil exists not as an

opposition to good but as a pervasive inescapable reality. As decay and deterioration

in the physical world, deformity becomes a moral corruption to humans. McCarthy

takes the tremendous risk of applying all dark themes which explains meaningless life
228

of the human beings in the meaningful world which gives the awareness for all the

people to live the life in a meaning full way.

McCarthy through his novels represents the kaleidoscopic view of the world

by describing the nature of the characters and nature of the world. The human

emotions being everyone have some destiny to achieve something within their life

time. McCarthy talks about fate of the people only in the dark world and their survival

in the life.

The life is immortal, but the human beings are mortal, the life span of the

human may differ and is determined by both the abstracts like happiness and sadness.

McCarthy‟s description clears the convergence of violence and horror, the divergence

of pleasant moments in the evil world in all the countries.

The great care of McCarthy as a twentieth century writer pictured the concept

of evil and horrors in different perspectives which everyone uncomplainingly

experience in the world inhumanity in through traumatic events and divine

relationship with the humanity. Through his novels McCarthy confesses horrors of the

evil world and gives awareness about the causes and redemption from sin. By this

redemptive nature Cormac McCarthy distinguishes himself from other writers and

thus makes his writings immortal.

Unlike other writers who give more priority to positive side of human life, McCarty

projects only the negative approach of human life in all his novels. Thereby he creates

awareness to the readers that every human being should follow morals and ethical

values so as to live in harmonious society. There are few areas still the future scholars

probe into. Like psychological aspects, style and sociological impacts of his writings.
229

McCarthy creates different kinds of dark themes that has the affective ridicules in

all themes. All the evil characters which give some moral and thought provoking

incidents that easily catch up in everyone‟s mind. All varieties of characters

intermingled with the concepts like life, evil, death, deal with producing all human

emotions. Each and every novel illustrates different kind of disasters that is

experienced by everyone in the world.

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