How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #4
They rode till noon and past noon. There was nothing along the road save the country and there was nothing in the country at all. The only sound was the steady clop of the horses along the road and the periodic spat of Blevins' tobacco juice behind them. (905)
Why does the narrator say that "there was nothing in the country at all," instead focusing on sounds? What importance might sound have here for understanding the land, and how does it create an atmosphere?
Quote #5
They slowed the horses and rode to the crest of the ridge. Nothing moved in all that gray landscape. They dismounted and walked out along the ridge. Small birds were beginning to call from the chaparral. (1272)
This scene is from the first morning after Rawlins and John Grady are pursued for Blevins' horse theft. McCarthy emphasizes the lack of movement and light across the land in the pre-dawn moments, heightening the tension.
Quote #6
She'd been away at school for three years. Her mother lived in Mexico and she went to the house on Sundays for dinner and sometimes she and her mother would dine alone in the city and go to the theatre or the ballet. Her mother thought life on the hacienda was lonely and yet living in the city she seemed to have few friends. (1836)
This is one of the very few, brief glimpses we see of Mexican city life in the novel: the rest is spent in small villages, the ranch, the prison, or barren countryside. Given the more refined activities Alejandra and her mother engage in while in the city, it suggests that there are entire vast aspects of society missing from the novel's portrayal of Mexico.