Tom Sawyer & Greed

No Country for Old Men

Cormac McCarthy’s writing has often been interpreted as a stark critique of contemporary America; however, despite the amount of debate, criticism, and apprehension regarding his bleak prognoses for the future, his works nevertheless present compelling characters in the style of Judge Holden (Blood Meridian), Anton Chigurh (No Country for Old Men), and Malkina (The Counselor) underlying growing faults in our moral configuration.

In the conventional and oft seen villain and hero film structure, Llewelyn Moss’s end in No Country for Old Men is lamented. His death is dismissed as a wholly unfortunate and, perhaps avoidable result of improper decision making. These decisions generally revolve around getting rid of the transponder sooner, never returning to the crime scene with water, or cursing Carla Jean’s mother for giving away his location. Yet few, if any, accounts are made regarding Moss’s “indefensible avarice,” which lead to the deaths of innocent bystanders, Carla Jean, and ultimately himself. Vincent Allen King writes, “[this] misreading thus leaves unacknowledged the morally problematic perspective Moss holds: that his and his wife's lives are worth risking for 2.4 million dollars."

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

In Mark Twain’s, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the titular protagonist’s conquests universally revolve around the acquisition of material wealth, fame, and success, and are generally acclaimed as “a wonderful study of the boy-mind” (William D Howell). Yet despite Tom’s relentless optimism in pursuing prosperity, his methods of procurement are less laudable. Throughout his adventures, Twain subtly depicts Tom as an exploiter and manipulator, gleaned as early as the white-washing scene, and carrying on throughout the rest of the novel as he cleverly maneuvers his daily life. The novel climaxes with Tom fulfilling his dream of finding riches and becoming showered in fame from the city of St. Petersburg, subtextually affirming his status as a veritable capitalist. Incidentally, this moment comes with the death of Injun Joe, symbolically highlighting America’s morally questionable and—perhaps ill-gotten—transfer of capital.

Perhaps more poignantly, however, is Tom Sawyer’s interminable optimism. When Huck begins fearing for his life and questioning the undertaken enterprise, Tom asserts, “If we don't find it I'll agree to give you my drum and everything I've got in the world.” For Tom, the pursuit of treasure is worth life itself.

Llewlyn Moss as Tom Sawyer

In No Country, nearly a century and a half later, we see the new protagonist, Llewelyn Moss, now undertaking a journey of his own, similarly motivated by avarice. Moss makes the “egotistical” assumption that “he can get something for nothing, that he can walk into the desert a poor man and walk out a rich one” (King). More interestingly, Roger D. Hodge writes, “leaving [the money] would be unthinkable; the world in which he finds himself has foreclosed that possibility” (70). The obsession with money, at the time Moss finds himself in, has etched itself into collective thinking, becoming one of the nation’s master narratives. This notion is symbolized shortly before Moss encounters the crime scene, as he observes pictographs, “perhaps thousands of years old.” Timothy Parrish asserts that “the etching made by long dead men frames the gathering of freshly dead that Moss next comes upon and whose recent adventure he is about to enter” (McCarthy 11; Parrish 71).

Alongside Moss’s assumptions about money worth risking life itself over is the unwavering belief in his own future success. Just as Tom Sawyer, his every action is imbued with an overwhelming sense of optimism, predicated on personal agency and self-efficacy. Louis B Wright writes that the defining characteristic of European colonists was their “optimism” and belief that there were no hardships which could not be overcome through hard work and good fortune. Huck’s trepidation is always countered by Tom’s hopefulness: “Huck, I always reckoned we'd get it.” Similarly, Carla Jean represents the Huck Finn to Llewelyn Moss: “I have a bad feeling about this,” she says, to which Moss replies, “well, I’ve got a good one, so they should balance out.” Rachel B Griffis writes, “just as Tom insists on pursuing the treasure at all costs, Moss fantasizes that he will best Chigurh, preserve his life, protect his wife, and keep the money for his own enjoyment.”