No Country for Old Men Chapter I Summary & Analysis

Summary: Chapter I

An unidentified narrator opens No Country for Old Men reminiscing about a soulless nineteen-year-old killer he sent to death row. He didn’t know it at the time, but the narrator would face far worse criminals in the future. The narrator does not want to meet the person he calls an agent of destruction. While he has always been willing to die, he will not risk his soul.

The scene shifts to the past. A man named Chigurh is detained in the sheriff’s office with hands cuffed behind his back. A deputy, speaking on the phone, doesn’t notice Chigurh passing his linked hands under his legs and rising to his feet. Chigurh strangles the deputy, cutting his carotid artery so he bleeds to death. Chigurh uses the keys to release himself, takes the deputy’s gun, and drives off in his squad car. On the highway he pulls over a car, forcing the man out of the vehicle. He shoots the man in the forehead with his weapon, which resembles a stun gun used at a cattle slaughterhouse.

The scene shifts to the desert, where a man named Moss hunts antelope. He takes a careful shot, but the herd runs away. As Moss continues to look for game, a dog limps by. Using his binoculars to look at the floodplain below, Moss spots three shot-up trucks with bodies lying near them. He slowly approaches the scene with his rifle ready to fire. One man in a vehicle is still alive. He asks for water in Spanish, but Moss has none. Moss finds parcels of brown powder in the trunk and sees a trail of blood. He tracks the blood and finds a dead man with a briefcase of money. Knowing what this money could mean for him, Moss takes the case and hikes back to his truck. He returns to his trailer, where his wife, Carla Jean, waits for him. She doesn’t believe that the case is filled with money, and she asks about his new gun. She eventually says she doesn’t want to know where he’s been.

Late that night, Moss wakes up and determines the case holds $2.4 million. Over Carla Jean’s protests, he navigates back to the scene with a jug of water, but the man in the car has been executed. Before Moss can return to his truck, he realizes other men have seen him. They chase him, shooting, as he crosses the floodplain, jumps into the river, gets carried downstream, and runs into a cane field. After Moss emerges, he no longer sees the men. Being careful not to leave any tracks, he climbs out of the canyon. Moss knows that come Monday morning, his pursuers will be able to identify and find him through the vehicle number on his truck. He heads east to a town thirty miles away.

Analysis: Chapter I

Chapter I introduces the novel’s three main characters: Bell (the unidentified narrator), Chigurh, and Moss. Each of these men’s traits shines through. Bell, despite speaking like a simple, uneducated man, thinks deeply. His life as a law enforcement officer has led him to consider issues around morality, choice, and evil. Because Bell’s monologue opens the book, his words set the stage, alerting readers that the book itself will explore these issues. Readers also will note that the monologue is written in the present tense, while the rest of the chapter is written in the past tense. As readers continue, they will come to understand that Bell’s monologue occurs after the events in the novel and that his introspection is a direct result of his encounters.

Chigurh shows himself to be a brutal but efficient killer who goes about his work without emotion. His main actions in this chapter surround killing, so he immediately becomes associated with death. As will become clear, Chigurh is the prophet of destruction that Bell speaks of in the opening monologue. The word prophet has several different meanings, but one is a person who brings the word of the divine, and another is a person who foretells future events. Both definitions apply to Chigurh. For the first, his manner of killing the driver—putting his hand on the other man’s head as a faith healer would—associates him with the angel of death. For the second definition, Chigurh represents a more sinister type of evil, one worse than a soulless killer and one that will become more prevalent in the future.

Moss appears as a methodical thinker who still makes a bad choice based on the promise of what money can bring him. While all three men are featured in the opening chapter, attention falls on Moss as, at this point, he emerges as the most fully fleshed-out character. Through the first images of him, readers understand that he is highly deliberative, measuring each decision and action as he attempts to shoot and kill an antelope. When Moss approaches the scenes of the shootout, he once again does so slowly and with careful attention, using all his senses. He understands the choices he makes may lead him into danger, and he wants to keep himself safe. Despite his care, Moss ultimately makes an unwise choice that has a profound impact on his life. When he chooses to take the money in the case, he does so with an understanding of what the money means for him. Moss knows that the money has the potential to change his life for the good because of its value. It also has the potential to change his life for the bad because whoever the money belongs to will come after him. Moss’s thoughts also introduce the concepts of luck and choice, which evolve into an important theme in the novel and with which multiple characters grapple.

The novel’s three opening sections also create the sense of menace and violence that permeates throughout. Bell talks about murderers, Chigurh reveals the depravity of murderers, and Moss sees carnage firsthand but still makes the fateful decision to insert himself into this death scene.

Next section Chapter II