“You don't have to do this”: Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men and the Courage to Be

Abstract This article engages debate on how Cormac McCarthy's novel No Country for Old Men (2005) grapples with what it means to live a life of courage in the face of existential threats by exploring the motives behind key moral choices made by main characters Anton Chigurh and Ed Tom Bell. With support from Paul Tillich's 1952 book The Courage to Be, the article finds that the primary intention behind these characters' choices is to protect themselves against the existential anxiety of self-condemnation. This reading contests notions that Chigurh either has no sense of moral responsibility or aims to evade it, and that Bell's story is one of moral cowardice to the end, concluding that the author's vision meets challenges presented by overwhelming external forces rather than resigning to them. These results may serve future research about self-affirmation in McCarthy's work.