The Borders of Humanity: Cormac McCarthy and the Western Genre

Abstract

Cormac McCarthy’s Western novels, including Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain, offer a profound reimagining of the American West, blending stark violence with philosophical reflections on the human condition. This paper aims to analyze the existential themes that are present in McCarthy’s work including fate, morality and the cyclical nature of time within the context of the frontier. However, these novels are not strictly Westerns because they go beyond simple frontier myths to explore other aspects of human experience including love, loss and failure of the myth. Through his poetic and often violent narrative, McCarthy paints a bleak picture of the American West not only as a geographical region but as a symbol of the human condition. In this paper, McCarthy’s literary skills are described to show that his books are not just about the Western world but contain elements of human experience.