AN ANALYSIS OF A PASSAGE FROM CORMAC MCCARTHY’S NOVEL

THE CROSSING

“The moon is rising and I’ll never be

alone/Wolves will take me home”

- “Wolves” by The Good Natured

THEME STATEMENT

Through physical immersion

and embracing nature, the

main character is able to reach

spiritual enlightenment.

LITERARY ELEMENTS

Christian Imagery

Polysyndeton

Juxtaposition

Point of View

Tones

Repetition

Anaphora

CHRISTIAN IMAGERY AND POLYSYNDETON

“He got the fire going and lifted the wolf

from the sheet and took the sheet to the creek

and crouched in the dark and washed the

blood out of it and brought it back and he cut

forked sticks from a mountain hackberry and

drove them into the ground with a rock and

hung the sheet on a trestlepole…” (lines 15-20)

IMAGES OF CHRISTIAN DEATH RITUAL

“…took the sheet to the creek…”

“…crouched in the dark and washed the blood

out of it…”

Christian imagery foreshadows the main

character’s realization of the spiritual world.

This ritual of death and polysyndeton shows the

narrator’s restrained feelings towards death.

JUXTAPOSITION

“…and drove them into the ground with a rock and

hung the sheet on a trestlepole where it steamed in a

wilderness where celebrants of some sacred passion

had been carried off by rival sects or perhaps had

simply fled in the night at the fear of their own

doing.” (lines 19-24)

Juxtaposition is indicative of the main character’s

conflict between the physical and spiritual world.

POINT-OF-VIEW

“He pulled the blanket about his shoulders and sat

shivering in the cold and waiting for the dawn that

he could find the place where he would bury the

wolf” (lines 24-27)

“…put his hand upon her bloodied forehead and

closed his own eyes that he could see her running in

the mountains, running in the starlight…” (lines 42-

45)

CHANGING POINT OF VIEW

Point of view changes in line 40

from an impartial observer to a third

party limited, representing the main

character’s shift from the physical

world to the spiritual.

TONE

“He fell asleep with his hands palm up before him

like some dozing penitent” (lines 31-32) – repentant

Repentant tone emphasizes the fact that he feels

upset that he feels bad and guilty that the wolf died.

He is partially absolved of this when he realizes the

wolf is only dead in the physical world but is still

alive in the spiritual world.

TONE 2 : RETURN OF THE TONE

“He looked for the horse but could

not see it” (line 36) – literal

The literal tone stresses the main

character’s connection to the physical

world.

REPETITION

“…put his hand upon her bloodied forehead and

closed his own eyes that he could see her running

in the mountains, running in the starlight…” (lines

42-45)

Emphasizes the shift between the physical and

spiritual sensation of running, “running” from the

physical world to the spiritual world

TONE 3 :REVENGE OF THE TONE

“Where she ran the cries of the coyotes clapped

shut as if a door had closed them and all was fear

and marvel” (lines 51-53) – elegiac, reverent

The elegiac and reverent tone accentuates the

main character’s respect and admiration for the

wolf, and how he wants to give her a proper burial

because he knows that she’s in a “better place” now.

JUXTAPOSITION 2 :THE JUXTAPOSITION WARS

“He took up her stiff head…and held

it or he reached out to hold what

cannot be held…” (lines 53-55)

Contrasts the physical to the spiritual

ANAPHORA

“What blood and bone are made of but can

themselves not make on any altar nor by any wound

of war. What we may well believe has power to cut

and shape and hollow out the dark form of the world

surely if wind can, if rain can.” (lines 57-61)

Repeated use of “What” (capitalized) is the

narrator trying to capture the essence of how he

feels. He doesn’t have a name for it, but he is still

trying to capture it.

CONNECTION TO GARY SOTO’S SUMMER LIFE

Gary Soto’s Summer Life is a story of how

Soto changed from vaguely spiritual to

physical.

In contrast, the main character in The

Crossing transforms from having physical

mourning to spiritual joy.