The importance of violence in No Country for Old Men As is the case with most of Cormac McCarthy's novels, No Country for Old Men full of scenes of violence. This novel, set in the chaotic and lawless border region between Texas and Mexico, opens with the murder of a police officer by a psychopathic criminal named Anton Chigurh. A bloody and botched drug deal immediately ensues. Although McCarthy's descriptions of violence are numerous, the violence is not gratuitous. Rather, scenes of violence serve literary purposes. Violence is used to create the menacing mood and dark setting of the novel, depict the conflicts between the novel's characters, and depict a changing world where evil threatens to destroy the virtue and goodness of humanity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Cormac McCarthy creates the novel's eerie mood and setting through his frequent use of violence. Texas, where the novel takes place, is historically known as the Wild West. Before Texas became a state, justice was administered by cowboys rather than courts. Likewise, the contemporary context in which the novel takes place is also one of anarchy, but in a more modern sense. Drug dealers roam, and the violence that often accompanies drug dealing is always threatening. There is a desperate and primitive feeling of a vast and barren land where men hunt each other. At the beginning of the novel, Llewellyn Moss's character is out deer hunting when he comes across a horrific scene of carnage where a drug deal had clearly been thwarted. Men and dogs are shot, cars are riddled with bullets and there is blood everywhere. Moss finds a suitcase full of money which he takes. The next day, drug traffickers hunt him down. After a fiery shootout and chase scene, Moss escapes. McCarthy's early descriptions of the empty landscape contribute to a sinister atmosphere and foreshadow violence: "Where he reached the summit the country was flat, extending south and east. Red dirt and creosote. Mountains in the distance and in the middle. Nothing there. Shimmering warmth. (pp. 26-27) This vast and eerily barren landscape provides the ideal setting upon which violence will erupt. There are no boundaries or rules. Other acts of violence are described early on by Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, which contribute to the atmosphere and setting of a violent community. Sheriff Bell's first-person narration, which precedes each chapter, reflects on the increase and nature of violent crime and describes the acts directed against him. A single example of Bell's concern over escalating violence is demonstrated in his statement that "the old boy opened up on me two more times and pulled out all the windows on one side of the vehicle …the fact is that you don’t know what you are.” you stop when you stop someone...you don't know what you're likely to find. » (p. 39) It is a country where the rules are not clearly defined and where violence, as well as the threat of violence, is always present. here. Violence moves the story forward and brings the main characters into conflict. The novel is essentially a terrifying series of violent acts in which Anton Chigurh hunts and kills, sometimes without a clear purpose. The central quest of the novel is for Chigurh to recover the money that Moss took and also to seek revenge "just for bothering him". (p. 150) Chigurh would never be satisfied with the return of money alone. Sheriff Ed Tom Bell foreshadows Chigurh's capacity for violence when he.