No Country for Old Men Chapter IX Summary & Analysis

Chapter IX

Summary: Chapter IX

Bell reflects that he never saw “her” again. He mentions getting the call from Odessa and trying to get “his” fingerprints off the FBI database. He ended up thinking that “he” was a ghost. Bell recalls that his daddy taught him to always tell the truth, even when you’re in the wrong. He has followed that advice most of his life.

Chigurh returns the money to a businessman who asks how Chigurh found him. Chigurh doesn’t answer but says he hopes to encourage the man to do business with him. When the man agrees, Chigurh says they will be working with new people who are more suitable for handling large amounts of money.

Carla Jean attends her mother’s funeral and returns home to find Chigurh in her bedroom. She tells him that she doesn’t have the money, so he has no reason to hurt her, but Chigurh intends to uphold his promise to Moss. Carla Jean cries, not understanding why Chigurh won’t change his mind. He pulls out a coin for her to call, but she loses. Chigurh, unlike Carla Jean, believes he has no say in her fate. He says it is her choices throughout life that have led to the present moment. Carla Jean tells Chigurh he doesn’t have to kill her, but he says he only knows this one way to live. Once he met Carla Jean, her life was doomed. Chigurh shoots her.

A few blocks away, a car hits Chigurh’s truck in an intersection. The impact injures Chigurh, who crawls out of his truck. As he examines his broken arm, he notices two teenage boys watching him. Chigurh offers them money for one of their shirts to use for first aid and also to forget what he looks like. He limps away. As the boys walk past his truck, they see his pistol.

Bell visits his uncle, Ellis, who lives alone. Ellis knows that Bell is leaving law enforcement. They discuss some relatives, particularly Harold, who was killed in World War I as a teenager, and Mac, who was shot on his porch in the 19th century by Native Americans, even though family lore gives him a grander fate. Ellis says this country was hard on people, and yet, people loved it. Bell confesses his greatest shame to Ellis. While serving in World War II, his squad occupied a farmhouse that was hit by an enemy mortar. Bell fired at the German soldiers, keeping them at bay, but worried what he would do when night fell. He ran out, leaving his squad pinned and dying in the wreckage, but he still was forced to accept a Bronze Star. Ellis says he had no choice, but Bell disagrees, even though he knew he couldn’t help his men. Since then, Bell has been trying to make up for his actions. He thinks he should have died that night and feels like he stole his own life. Bell’s father was a better man and would have stayed.

Analysis: Chapter IX

As the novel draws to its end, the driving motivations of the protagonist and antagonist begin to become clear. Readers already know that something about this case has impacted Bell so greatly that he leaves his long law enforcement career. This chapter explains why. Carla Jean’s death, referenced in Bell’s opening monologue, though he never uses her name, triggers him to recall and give voice to a memory from World War II that he has buried for decades: leaving behind his men to save his own life. Bell has been so ashamed of his actions that he hasn’t told anybody about this incident, but it is a key part of why he became a sheriff. Now, because Bell has failed to protect Moss and particularly Carla Jean, who is unequivocally innocent, his old concerns have resurfaced. His sharing this incident with his uncle also explains why he mentions that his father’s advice was to always tell the truth. Bell recognizes that he has lived a lie of omission, and thus his life has been a failure.

A key question throughout the novel has been what causes Chigurh to track down Moss and the money. The narrative explains that the various Mexican men are all sent by drug dealers, but Chigurh has answered to no one. The text does not make clear if Chigurh works freelance or was initially brought in by one of the men in power. While a likely assumption may have been that Chigurh wanted the $2.4 million for himself, in reality, he wanted to return it to the rightful owner to cement a new business connection. This understanding makes Chigurh’s actions, particularly toward Carla Jean, even more appalling. Chigurh goes after the money and kills so many people so that he can expand his business of killing more people for even more money.

In this chapter, Chigurh’s lengthy conversation with Carla Jean reveals a few key points about his unique philosophy concerning fate. First, although she can’t understand why he must keep his promise to her husband when she had nothing to do with the theft of the money, Chigurh confesses that this is the only way to live his life. His words indicate that he might not be able to continue as a hitman if he has to feel guilt over the violent acts he commits. Second, Chigurh makes his ideas about fate sound like high-minded principles, but they can also be interpreted as justification. Third, his explanation of the coin toss shows his belief in his own importance. When he tells Carla Jean that he thought he might give her a little hope before killing her, he assumes for himself the powers and presence of a godlike creature. Finally, Chigurh misrepresents his conversation with Moss for his own purposes. He never promised Moss that he would kill Carla Jean, but he still wants to do so, even though it will no longer serve its original purpose of getting him the money. The question becomes: Is his philosophy not that people chose their fates, but that he is fated to deliver people to their deaths?