Searching for a moral center in Cormac McCarthy.

In an examination of critical responses to Cormac McCarthy's fiction, two opposing viewpoints emerge. Many critics, such as Vereen Bell, interpret McCarthy's fictional world as a nihilistic one. Edwin Arnold, however, rejects this approach and contends that McCarthy's fiction possesses a distinctly Christian vision. While both of these opposing viewpoints can be defended, both are flawed and incomplete interpretations of McCarthy's fiction. This study seeks to provide a better way to understand and interpret McCarthy's fiction from a perspective that is neither nihilistic nor distinctly Christian. My main focus is on McCarthy's quest for a moral center, independent from organized religion. Traditionally, in the Western world, morality has been grounded in Christianity. Hence, the loss of Christianity means that morality might founder or be lost altogether. McCarthy, I believe, is exploring this relationship between morality and spirituality. In his fiction, McCarthy clearly questions the relevancy of organized religion, especially Roman Catholicism. In fact, McCarthy summarily rejects Catholicism as a demeaning and insufferable institution, as in Suttree, where Suttree, a lapsed Catholic who is haunted by his religious past, bitterly rejects this doctrine of despair. Considering the inability of the Church to meet the needs of humankind as well as to provide a clear and relevant moral vision, McCarthy explores alternative sources of moral insight. As McCarthy searches elsewhere for a moral center that holds, his search does not always lead where one might expect. McCarthy searches for a moral center in places that stray far from the traditional church or usual institutions of morality. These unlikely sources are always creative in their variety—a fugitive killer, a succubus, an ex-priest, a blind man, a dream, even a child in a church bus window, to name just a few. All of them speak when the church universal and triumphant has been rendered impotent and irrelevant. Far from being nihilistic, then, McCarthy deliberately sets out to establish a moral center in a world that exacts a price, often in blood, from its inhabitants. Acknowledging such a search is crucial for readers to understand fully McCarthy's fictional world.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Grantor

Baylor University.

Year dc:date.issued

2001

Author dc:creator

• Coppinger, Stanley K.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Barcus, James E., 1938-

• McCarthy, Cormac, 1933- -- Criticism and interpretation.
• McCarthy, Cormac, 1933- -- Characters.

Statement dc:rights

• Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2104/14816

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:baylor-ir.tdl.org:2104/14816