Violence And Power In Cormac Mccarthy’s The Border Trilogy

The Border Trilogy, consisting of All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing and The Cities ofthe Plain, is written by the eminent American writer Cormac McCarthy and tells theprotagonists’ tragic pursuit of cowboy paradise in Mexican-American border. It reflects thedestruction of the West and expresses the author’s lamentation on the American West. TheBorder Trilogy deeply unmasks that cowboy life was excluded by social power in the1950s when America was experiencing its modernization and industrialization, thus,reflecting that individuals are disciplined by social power. With regard to the studies of TheBorder Trilogy, many scholars mainly focus on the novels’ ecological consciousness,cultural memory and deconstruction of the Myth of the West and so on. However, very fewhave investigated it from the perspective of Foucault’s theory of power to lay bare thefactors that cause the tragic life of the protagonists. This thesis, by using Foucault’s theoryof power, analyses the complicated power relationships and explicates the function ofviolence in the operation of power mechanism, so as to point out that the death or thevagrant life of fictional characters symbolizes the disciplinary status of modern man inmodern society. Their tragic fates are exacerbated by their resistance against power. Theirsituation proves the existential dilemma of modern man. They, on the one hand, areanxious for freedom; on the other, they are restricted by social power and become prisonerswho are disciplined in the prison-like society.This thesis has three chapters. Following the concise introduction of Cormac McCarthyand his The Border Trilogy and the academic studies of The Border Trilogy, Chapter Oneconcentrates on the discussion of visible and invisible violence imposed by disciplinarypower and power negotiation respectively, and points out the marriage between power andviolence, which penetrates into every social stratum, makes people restricted. Chapter Twofocuses on spiritual and physical violence done to individuals as a result of resistanceagainst power. Chapter Three intensively discusses the operation of all kinds ofdisciplinary powers in carceral society where individuals are punished in a violent way as aconsequence of their rebellious behaviors. Finally, individuals, in face with dominatingviolence, have no choice but to be disciplined into docile bodies. Based on the summary of the foregoing chapters, the thesis concludes that: McCarthy, by using violence in theWestward Movement as motif, reveals the hard struggle of individuals who seekself-identity in the web of omnipresent power. In doing so, McCarthy ruthlessly repudiatesmodern civilization which neglects individuality, treads on the true values of humanexistence, and forcibly disciplines individuals into docile subjects whose bodies are usefulfor society, thereby, reflecting the existential dilemma of modern man.