CONCEPTS OF FATE, FREE WILL AND DETERMINISM IN CORMAC McCARTHY’S NOVELS
Keywords:
fate, free will, narrative fatalism, tragic hero, moral ambiguity.Abstract
This essay looks at how fate, free choice, and determinism work together in Cormac McCarthy's books, especially The Road, No Country for Old Men, and The Passenger. McCarthy's characters typically live in morally grey worlds where things seem to have to happen, yet they still have to deal with choices and their effects. McCarthy asks whether people behave freely or are controlled by bigger forces, whether they are cosmic, psychological, or societal. He does this through simple discourse, symbolic landscapes, and inner conflict. This study's goal is to find out how McCarthy mixes literary fatalism with existential freedom to create tension between action and inevitability.
References
1. Danta, C. (2011). The last word: Cormac McCarthy and the aesthetics of exhaustion. Modern Fiction Studies, 57(1), 74–92. https://doi.org/10.1353/mfs.2011.0015
2. Ellis, J. (2013). Free will, fate, and moral responsibility in No Country for Old Men. The Cormac McCarthy Journal, 11(2), 125–142. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44740408
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4. McCarthy, C. (2005). No Country for Old Men. Vintage International.
5. McCarthy, C. (2006). The Road. Vintage International.
