Argumentative essay

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Name: Hussain Albadrani

Instructor: Mr. Crippen

Course: English 108

Date: 04/24/2021

Tools of Fate (No country for old men)

The film that this paper refers to is a neo thriller based on Cormac McCarthy's 2005

novel of the same name. The movie is a journey that sets out in the desert landscape. It discusses

and demonstrates different themes and brings the same forcefully to the audience through its

characters and their actions throughout the film. These themes include the theme of conscience,

the theme of fate, and circumstance that the Coen brothers had already explored. The movie

concentrates on a Vietnam War veteran who in the desert stumbles on a huge amount of money,

and a hitman is procured to look for that money. Therefore, this paper will look at this movie

concerning the topic above and explain and look at the same topic deeply and discuss how

fate's tools are brought out forcefully and discussed by the movie through its characters. The

argument which is brought in this assertion is logical and does make sense to some extent. This

is because sometimes the decision that people make or even the choices that they do take are,

in most cases, not informed. Sometimes the choices are made unconsciously, and these

decisions will eventually serve as a tool to someone's fate. Therefore the tools of fate cannot

be defined. However, things like money in this film are seen as the flipped coin is a tool that

does determine someone's fate.

Apart from chance and fate, the choice is a theme that is prevalent in this movie.

Characters in the movie choose their fate, as witnessed in some scenes. The Mexicans involved

in the drug trade in this movie are many, and this acts as a basis for their fate, the activities that

they do carry throughout their life, the events that they choose to do are the ones that do end

up determining their fate. They chose their fate by the act of basically doing certain things and

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not doing the other. Their choice to do or not do certain things in the process determines

whether they will live or die, which the tool of their fate becomes. For example, looking at one

of Llewellyn's characters, who is a family man with both a wife, the choice that he had to

whether stealing or not stealing the money that he saw was the tool that could determine his

fate. Unfortunately, he goes with the wrong decision and chooses his fate and that of his family

by stealing the money. By stealing the money, it meant that his fate was sealed. The people he

stole the money from hunt him down him and his family, which becomes why his fate was

sealed by the act of him stealing the money.

Another character in the movie whose fate is determined by the actions that he does is

Moss. He had the choice to either keep the money or not. However, his fate is also determined

by if he chooses and chooses to keep the money. Moss becomes stubborn and heartless, and he

doesn't even care about his family members' well-being; when he was given the option of either

choosing his wife to be safe by giving back the money. He chooses not to surrender even if it

means his wife could be killed, and this does form a basis for his fate. Therefore, the characters

discussed in this paper are examples of how powerful the choices we make are by simply

making the decisions and choosing from the different options we have. Any choice that a person

ends up choosing, whether moral or immoral, will eventually either positively or negatively.

Chigurh is one of the characters in the movies, and he is portrayed as being more human

and linear on the victims he has. He gives his victims choices: heads or tails. These choices

that he gives to his victims revolve around luck or fate, the choice that the victims would make

will determine their fates, all choices have consequences (Scott, 2007). Therefore, Chigurh

gives his victims the choice of either choosing heads or tails. This gives him the liberty to either

kill or let his victims live. The responsibility of making the right choices in a world where past

experiences are evil and no guide is abundant. Therefore, the main theme that this film is trying

to put across through its characters and the actions that they do carry throughout is that way

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that we should and do resist the evil forces that do present themselves to us individuals. How

one can maintain and uphold one sense of integrity is a crucial theme that the film discusses.

Fate is another prominent theme that the film exposes and brings to the attention of its

viewers. While Anton, as an actor does, represents and demonstrate the destructive and the

negative aspect of fate and chance, Llewelyn, on the other hand, is used by the producer of the

film to demonstrate. It shows the role that fate plays and how this affects various characters in

the same film. Also, he tried to escape death and prepared for it by sending his family away to

a Motel in Del Rio since he knew that the owner of the money would send other people to look

for him is also a coincidence. The confusion and drama revolve around these incidences, and

the coincidence that Llewelyn finds himself indefinitely leads to the chase. The remaining part

of the film revolves around and generates anxiety that makes this movie an interesting one.

Throughout the film, the viewers do guess and anticipate that Llewelyn will die by being killed

by the hitman before the movie ends. The audience makes this guess since Chigurh, the hitman

sent to hunt Llewelyn, is depicted as aggressive and intelligent and always achieving whatever

he does. However, Llewelyn's fate is interesting, just as the link between Chigurh and chance.

The theme of war is also used as a tool to demonstrate fate. The different wars

depicted in the movie include the Vietnam War, the war on drugs, and the war between crime

and society, as witnessed in the events of this story. All these different wars serve as tools of

fate as the movie uses them to explain how the same is used to transform the people in society

to be what they are, and the end product of their being does usually determine their fate. "War

in this case therefore as a tool of fate is used to explain how the same does brings the worst out

of human character" (McCarthy, 2006) and offers the opportunity for great heroism. Wars also,

just as it is used to demonstrate and allow someone to be a hero, show and demonstrate the

background of evil. Wars is a toxic thing that propagates for hate, and it does teach people how

to hate their enemy. It instills in the mind of the people who are at war that killing is a way to

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survive, make money, and gain power, and this mentality does seals and determines the fate of

the person who, in any case, is practicing it. For example, war as a tool of fate is used clearly

to show this by the two characters in the movie that is Moss and Wells. "They feel at home and

very comfortable in the drug wars in Texas. They look at war as a game and want to outsmart

each other. They lack remorse and morals, and only death can stop them" (McCarthy, 2006).

This, therefore, becomes their fate. The satisfaction they have and the war that they find

themselves in are used to determine their fate, and they are not ready to change. They view the

war in the drugs sector as a game that they need to win by outsmarting their competitors shows

how deep they are in the whole issue, and this only makes the situation that they are in even

worse.

Regardless of your free will, our actions are effectively driven by chance; this is the

statement and thing the film, through its character, demonstrates. Our limitations prohibit us

from perceiving chance without tools like coins that characters like Chigurh use for their

victims. We cannot separate the act from the thing. The coin is the thing, but the act is the

expression of chance and the inherent dynamism of life. This allows Chigurh to think about

each moment in his history because the same laws of chance which are applied to the other

characters are at work in all places at all times. This is a very powerful argument that is

abstractly communicated by the characters in the film. The fate that we choose depends on the

choices that we make, and the tools used in choosing our fate are inherent, and the fate that we

eventually chose can either be chosen.

Every moment in your life is a turning and every one a choosing. Somewhere everyone

has made a choice either willingly or unwillingly. All followed this, Chance is considered

omnipresent, and each turning point we endure affects what comes after it, ultimately and death

eventually and therefore, this means that escaping making a choice that will eventually

determine one's fate is impossible. Our Choices and actions shape our trajectories, and this

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governs the universe. The importance of fortuitous types of decisions is made daily by different

people, but sometimes the most important decisions cross the path that demands an answer.

The decision that an individual makes in any situation usually does end up pointing him/her to

the existence of fate.

The three characters Chigurh have the most control over is Moss, wells and Carla

Jean. These three characters do fights their own battles, but eventually they all end up meeting

Chigurh at the end of their battle. The choices that they have made, which are in this case

described as the tools of fate, do in the long run direct the three characters to the fate that is

dependent on the choices that they made (Scott, 2007). He is the one character who is given

the power by the author to seal their fates. Therefore, Chigurh serves as the end, and the three

characters' fate, the decisions that they make throughout their lives seem to direct them to the

same fate that Chigurh had to seal.

Coen's adoption of "No Country for Old men" emphasizes seal of fate that each of these

characters meets when they contact Chigurh. It is their fate that the Coen brothers must felt

was most important to bring out. The film's adaptation breaks the story and depicts the plot

through the eyes of each character. Each character in the film seems to be having no power

over the fate that is already sealed. Every decision that they make and every choice they chose

seems like it is only drawing them closer to the ultimate fate they have to face, and that is

Chigurh. The tossing of the coin in the cashier and Carls Jean's case represents the probability

intertwined in human life. It shows no essential difference from one choosing to put on either

blue shirt or a red shirt. The chance rule is universally applicable.

The theme of evil also comes out in this film. Though Bell is depicted as a good person,

he has a dark side. He recognizes evil in himself as he works to protect others. He deserts the

other soldiers who were injured and believes he has betrayed them. Though he could not rescue

them, he runs for his life and equates himself to the drug runners. He was weak. The fact he

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runs also does rescue his life, and not fighting to rescue his other soldiers helps him protect

himself and this, in the long run, determines his fate. In the movie, money, power and fate are

intertwined. The use of the coin to determine the fate of victims to be killed symbolizes how

money can determine fate. Guns symbolize power, which is the ultimate reward to those who

have money and are used to determine the characters' fate.

Conclusion

In as much as people argue that fate occurs, Naturally, we all agree that there is a certain

choice that will automatically determine their fate if made by an individual. In the process of

therefore looking at these incidences, ignoring that there are tools that are used in the sealing

of ones' fate will be not true. Such tools, such as money and power, are but the few used tools

and determine someone's fate. Money can either make someone powerful, and in this case,

tools like guns which this film looks at extensively, determine how one dies, which is only

given to the most powerful people.

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Work cited

McCarthy, C. (2006). No Country for Old Men. 2005. New York: Vintage.

Scott, A. O. (2007). He Found a Bundle of Money, And Now There's Hell to Pay. Rev. of No

Country for Old Men, dir. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. New York Times. Global

ed, 9.