58 pages • 1 hour read
Cormac McCarthyA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
McCarthy sets the novel on a literal and metaphorical border: The Parham land is not far from Mexican territory, and their way of life similarly abuts a watershed moment in the region’s history. McCarthy marries physical and temporal setting to explore the transition from life on the American frontier to a new sense of national and geographical identity. Hidalgo County, New Mexico was established in 1920, and the Parham family arrived soon after to settle the land and begin ranching there. They are the generation at the tail end of what is considered as the Old West, the period when the Western and Southwestern states of America were first settled. The Old West is defined by tension between lawlessness and order, history and possibility. Hidalgo County is in transition toward civilization and modernity, which is apparent in many ways: The tension between the wandering Indigenous man and the Parham boys in the opening pages of the novel demonstrates a resentment toward settlement; horses and Model A trucks mingle on the road; and, symbolically, the wild wolves have been driven to extinction in the Animas Valley.
Hunters like Echols engaged in the practice of trapping and hunting for wolves in order to make the valley safe for ranchers.
By Cormac McCarthy
All The Pretty Horses
Cormac McCarthy
Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy
Child of God
Cormac McCarthy
Cities of the Plain
Cormac McCarthy
No Country for Old Men
Cormac McCarthy
Outer Dark
Cormac McCarthy
Stella Maris
Cormac McCarthy
Suttree
Cormac McCarthy
The Orchard Keeper
Cormac McCarthy
The Passenger
Cormac McCarthy
The Road
Cormac McCarthy
Action & Adventure
View Collection
American Literature
View Collection
Appearance Versus Reality
View Collection
Books on Justice & Injustice
View Collection
Books that Feature the Theme of...
View Collection
Community
View Collection
Family
View Collection
Globalization
View Collection
Truth & Lies
View Collection
Westerns
View Collection