Critics often trace the prevailing mood of despair and purported
nihilism in the works of Cormac McCarthy to the striking absence of
interior thought in his seemingly amoral characters. In No More
Heroes, however, Lydia Cooper reveals that though McCarthy limits
inner revelations, he never eliminates them entirely. In certain
crucial cases, he endows his characters with ethical decisions and
attitudes, revealing a strain of heroism exists in his otherwise
violent and apocalyptic world.
Cooper evaluates all of McCarthy's work to date, carefully
exploring the range of his narrative techniques. The writer's
overwhelmingly distant, omniscient third-person narrative rarely
shifts to a more limited voice. When it does deviate, however,
revelations of his characters' consciousness unmistakably exhibit
moral awareness and ethical behavior. The quiet, internal struggles
of moral men such as John Grady Cole in the Border Trilogy and the
father in The Road demonstrate an imperfect but very human
heroism.
Even when the writing moves into the minds of immoral
characters, McCarthy draws attention to the characters' humanity,
forcing the perceptive reader to identify with even the most
despicable representatives of the human race. Cooper shows that
this rare yet powerful recognition of commonality and the internal
yearnings for community and a commitment to justice or compassion
undeniably exist in McCarthy's work.
No More Heroes directly addresses the essential question about
McCarthy's brutal and morally ambiguous universe and reveals
poignant new answers.
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