Author: Sophie Langa

In this section of the book I focused on the idea that Wax put forth that it is no longer a cultural problem of race it is a personal problem. She says “without radical change in black’s own approach to their continuing dilemma the problem of racial inequality will continue to resist policy based solution” (36). I find it interesting that she does not find there to be an issue in the country as a whole, but it is up to one race to change their attitude and ways in order to get what they want. I do not agree with the statements she has made. There is still systematic oppression of black Americans in this country. Just in the sense of voting it is statistically harder for black Americans to get out and vote. This is because the times that are allotted for voting in neighbor hoods predominantly black are during times which are not convent. Most people cannot leave work to vote on voting days, so polls in mostly white neighborhoods are open long after the workday has opened. But in black neighborhoods they are open mostly just during the workday. If this were the case in all neighborhoods, then the voting turn out would dramatically decrease. There are many other examples of this oppression like profiling of the police and recruiters for jobs. It is not just up to black Americans but also white Americans. The ones who can change the outcome are the ones who think it is someone else’s job to do so, and that is why the system keeps failing black Americans. 

This movie takes you through a couple of rough relationships for these women. First you learn that both are in very unhappy relationship and need an escape from their everyday lives because it has become too much for them to mentally handle. Bonnie is in an abusive relationship that has but her as a servant to her husband Roy, while Clyde never married she has become a slave to her job and the life that follows it. The two women go out on an adventure to get away from life, but it ends up very quickly into a race to get away from the authorities. Bonnie is attacked and Clyde shoots the man in cold blood to protect her. The two are now running from the law the rest of the movie. To make money they start robbing banks and kidnapping people. They are projecting the ultimate Wild West life style, one with no law. They have come outlays in the old west and are constantly on guard that they will be caught. Eventually the police find them and there is a big car case concluding in them getting conners on the cannon side. Instead of turning themselves in they decided to go out like the outlaws they are. With the car in drive they shoot towards the cliff and drive off. Concluding the movie. They saw no other choice then to kill themselves together, ending the trip the way they started, just the two girls. This movie was really interesting because it showed the two women acting like male figures the whole times while still acting like women to get their way.

This movie is set in the wild west during the 1980s. It depicts a time and culture of freedom where you can seem to get away with anything you would like. The main character is named Llewelyn Moss, he is a Vietnam war veteran who has settled down with his partner in the Midwest of the US. In the opening scene he is out hunting in the fields and gets lost tracking an animal. While he was wondering around, he come across this disturbing scene. There are about 5 or 6 cars shot up and 10 people dead on the ground. The main character has been so desensitized to these types of situations because of the war. Llewelyn walks around to find that it had been a drug deal that took a turn and he later finds the ‘last man standing’, who had a duffle bag of cash. He takes the cash, and this becomes the set up for the rest of the movie. 

The law is these two ‘cowboys’ who are lackadaisical about their duties to protect the people, and this is emphasize in the first couple of scenes. The policeman come up to an open massacre in the prairie and they seem to think little of it. It was only a drug deal gone wrong to them, and they could shrug it off. These two will later come back to the movie when the climax begins to build.  You can hear them talking about how useless they feel throughout the movie, because they can do nothing to stop all of these murders. 

Anton Chigurh is the murder in the movie. This man has murdered 3 people in cold blood before the first 30 minutes of the movie. He has been hired by drug lords to hunt and kill Llewelyn because he took their drug money. The two men have many interactions that end in shoot outs or chases, but both always come away with their lives.  The finial shoot out scene both Llewelyn and Chigurh get injured in the altercation. The two flee for help on opposite sides and part ways. 

Llewelyn runs from Chigurh and decides to pick up a hitchhiker on the way for extra protection. Yet, this doesn’t work. When they get to the next hotel local drug dealers shoot and kill the main character. Chigurh shows up and is pissed because Llewelyn didn’t give him the money. So, to keep his word Chigurh goes back to Llewelyn’s home and kills his partner, which he had promised. On his way out of the movie Chigurh gets into a car crash and brutally breaks his arm. He pays a young boy a lot of money for his shirt and then walked away from the scene of the crime. 

This movie sets the scene of a country that has little law enforcement. You are made to believe that in the Midwest you are on your own. Llewelyn has to fight his own battle and protect himself because the law enforcement in his town cannot stop the drug lords and their accomplice on a murdering spree.  As the title say, No Country for Old Men, this is not a place for the elderly or slow. If you can’t not protect yourself you will have no chance of survival.

This book shows three American boys who have decided that running off to Mexico was in their best interest. They leave the ‘land of the free’ to go to another more physically free place. I found it interesting that these boys found it necessary for their success and happiness to travel to Mexico to find work and start a new life. In these times not many people decided to leave America, because it was the home of the most individual freedom. People normally went to America to find their freedom not away from it. This shows that in the 1940s there was a restlessness of the people for work and success. Everyone wanted to be a part of the American dream and if it did not come quickly to them or there was a small obstacle they looked elsewhere just like John Cole. 

After discussing the first chapter in class I have gone back to the text to further analyze some main points that happened. The main character John Cole brings up this idea of wild horses. He describes them as though he is fascinated with their wildness and their freedom. He further goes to relate them to man and their tendencies. Yet later in the book he was brought to this ranch where they tame wild horses. If you connect these too scene you can see that he shows how horses and men are not ‘useful’ until they are tamed and trained, but they are beautiful in their natural wild selves. McCarthy brings these two scenes together 100 pages apart and draws the significance together. He has done this at multiple points in his writing, where one scene plays off another that has proceeded it many pages earlier. It is an interesting way to bring a story and handful emotions together. As I was reading this next section I was waiting to see if there would be conclusions to previous conflicts in the book, drawing me further into the story.