1/19/11

“The Crossing” Essay

In the following passage from Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Crossing (1994). the

narrator describes a dramatic experience. Read the passage carefully. Then, in a well-organized

essay, show how McCarthy’s techniques convey the impact of the experience on the main

character.

We should never judge a book by its cover.The main character in the passage tackled on

the duty of burying a wolf and during this process he encounters a mental renaissance of his

inner beliefs. In the novel The Crossing, McCarthy uses many techniques including

personification and imagery. He utilizes these techniques in order to show the physical struggle

the character faces in taking care of the wolf, and the emotional bond and appreciation of nature

created from the dramatic experience.

The main characters goes through many physical struggles and dangers like sleeping in

the cold night in order to take care the wolf. One of the dangers he faced was the frightening

noises of coyotes. McCarthy uses personification by saying the “coyotes were yapping” and

“were calling” in order to show the fierceness of these animals. Coyotes can easily rip through

flesh and bones which puts the main character under imminent danger. The smell of blood on the

“trousers”, “the sheet”, and the “fur” of the wolf itself, which was “bristly with the blood” just

accumulates the dangerous situation. A struggle the character had to overcome is the dark and

eerie setting. Apart from the sounds of animals, the dark night was a struggle in it self. He
“walked the horse back to the creek”, “scouted the banks for [fire]wood”, “washed [the sheet of

bloody cloth]and built a “trestle pole” only under the moonlight. The night was also extremely

“cold”; he “sat shiver-ing in the cold”. He accomplished all these tasks in the night and in a

difficult geographic location of “the tall escarpments” just to take care of the wolf. He took care

of the wolf by waiting in the cold night, so “that he could find a place where he would bury the

wolf.”

McCarthy exemplifies the main character's emotional bond to the wolf by the use the

literary technique, imagery. The main character of the passage “touched her fur”, and the “cold

and perfect teeth”, “closed it [the eye] with his thumb and sat by her and put his hands upon her

bloodied forehead.” This use of imagery makes the reader visualize the gentle touch and the

appreciation of nature of the main character. The mental dream of the character where “he see[s]

her running in the mountains, running in the starlight where the grass was wet and the sun’s

coming as yet had not undone the rich matrix of the creatures passed in the night before her.”

This day dream of the character shows a visual imagery by McCarthy and an insight to the

character's mind which is filled with emotional bonding to the wolf and more appreciation of

nature.

McCarthy’s cleverly uses personification and imagery to show the great struggles and

danger the character had to face and the emotional bonding perpetuated by the examination of

the wolf. He faced the scary cold night with wild coyotes and pictured a very flamboyant wolf

roaming the forest. What the main character gained from this dramatic experience is an
enlightened view of the world. Good and bad exists in all parts of life and we should sometimes

accept the fact that darkness sometimes prevails like the case of the wolf.