Existentialist Motifs of Alienation and Death in McCarthy’s ‘Border Trilogy’

Abstract

The article closely reads Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy in light of the existentialist motifs of alienation and death. The aim of the study is to analyse the literary representation of these motifs in the trilogy. The applied methodology involves close reading, which facilitates identifying the motifs of death and alienation in the novels; character analysis, focused on exploring the main characters’ experiences of death and alienation; and comparative analysis, which is used to compare the representation of the existentialist motifs in the novels. The study reveals that in The Border Trilogy, the existentialist motif of alienation manifests itself through the desire of the main characters to free themselves from social conventions and to mend the wrongness of the world they live in. This motif takes forms of madness, alienation from other characters, and isolation from society. The protagonists, looking for their place in the world, face hardships, encounter resistance, and therefore constantly feel estrangement. In the novels, the existentialist motif of death serves for a better understanding of human nature and is one of the driving forces of the protagonists’ existence. This motif manifests itself through blood and bones, dreams, natural and violent deaths, the extermination of nature, and the disappearance of established traditions. Symbolising the end of existence, death prompts the main characters to search for the purpose of their lives and strive for authenticity.