The Crossing

A detailed Summary of The Crossing


Authors often write so that they may express their views on various subjects. Other times, they may wish to make people realize an important truth. In Cormac McCarthy's novel The Crossing, there is a passage that shows how a man's view of life is changed by something that he experiences. This dynamic experience is the death of a wolf. McCarthy shows how using imagery and sentence structure alters the mindset of the man. Through the course of the passage, the man has a major revelation about life. He discovers that tangible things that we associate as being life really have no consequence. Life, is not something that can be held or controlled by any one person or thing, and because of it's intangibility, there is a degree of uncertainty and fear surrounding us all of the time.

Imagery is woven through out the passage. McCarthy describes nearly every motion and action the man takes. McCarthy takes great care in describing the setting of the piece. Readers really can see the rocky slopes, feel


Though McCarthy uses many different techniques to show the change in mentality of the man, the other prominent one is the use of specified sentence structure. McCarthy shows in great detail the trifle details of life in the second paragraph. By describing each motion of the man, without punctuation, and in one continuous line, he shows how one may become engrossed with the minuscule details of life. Describing the mans actions in this way makes the focus of the passage lie on the trifle details. As the passage continues and the man discovers that there is more to life than simply going through the motions, the sentence structure also changes. Instead of having every sentence following a distinct structured form, it becomes more similar to stream of conscience. The sentences are no longer complete thoughts, but move together, creating one big scheme, mimicking the grand scheme of life that the man comes to realize. Rather than describing all of the little things that the man does, McCarthy descr

Some common words found in the essay are:
Cormac McCarthy's, Cormac McCarthy, , sentence structure, life held, trifle details, realizes life held, imagery sentence structure, man's view, mccarthy describes, realizes life, details life, imagery sentence, death wolf,

Approximate Word count = 678
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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