Morality in Cormac McCarthy's Fiction: Souls at Hazard by Russell M. Hillier (review)

The issue of whether or not there is any definable moral compass or framework in Cormac McCarthy's works has been the focus of McCarthy criticism, particularly given his explicit rendering of human degradation and relentless violence. In general, there are two opposing scholarly voices, one represented by Vereen Bell, the other by Edwin T. Arnold. Bell claims that McCarthy's fictional worlds are nihilistic and devoid of moral reference, whereas Arnold posits that McCarthy's fiction contains a clear moral order. Arnold's effort to counter Bell's argument and to explore the moral engagement of McCarthy's works has been intensified by other critics, notably Lydia R. Cooper in No More Heroes: Narrative Perspective and Morality in Cormac McCarthy (2011) and Matthew L. Potts in Cormac McCarthy and the Signs of Sacrament: Literature, Theology, and the Moral of Stories (2015). In his monograph Morality in Cormac McCarthy's Fiction: Souls at Hazard (2017), Russell M. Hillier has contributed another significant work to such studies. His book examines McCarthy's rich moral vision as it is conveyed in McCarthy's Southwestern works, including Blood Meridian (1985), All the Pretty Horses (1992), Cities of the Plain (1998), No Country for Old Men (2005), The Counselor (2013), and The Road (2006). By meticulously delving into McCarthy's debts to the literary and philosophical tradition, Hillier explores how McCarthy's work "grapples with abiding moral and metaphysical issues: the nature and problem of evil, the idea of God or the transcendent, the question of moral choice and action, the possibility of goodness, the meaning and limits of civilization, the benefits and pitfalls of 'progress,' the good of story, and the definition of what it is to be human" (8).

In the first chapter, which serves as an "Introduction," Hillier begins with a review of past criticism of McCarthy's work. He then puts forward his central thesis that "McCarthy's body of work conveys an impassioned and consistent moral vision" and McCarthy "remains as intrigued by the mystery of goodness as he is by the mystery of evil" (6). He limits his focus to a consideration of McCarthy's Southwestern works, claiming that in these works the author's greatest concern is not the degeneracy of mankind, but "the miracle and possibility of goodness in spite of the infliction of natural, moral, and spiritual evil" (6). Furthermore, he proposes that "the deep moral vision McCarthy's works articulate commonly deploys intertextuality and questions of genre to advance that vision" (7). Accordingly, he explores how the deep moral vision in McCarthy's Southwestern works is conveyed and cemented by ambitiously drawing out the author's debt to the influence of prominent philosophers and theologians such as Marcus Aurelius, Jacob Boehme, Immanuel Kant, and Hannah Arendt, as well as poets, playwrights, and novelists such as Ovid, Dante Alighieri, John Milton, William Shakespeare, Herman Melville, and Fyodor Dostoevsky, among others.

In the second and third chapters, Hillier explores the traits of two characters in McCarthy's most violent novel Blood Meridian, specifically the diabolism of Judge Holden on the one hand, and the compassion of the character of the kid on the other. In Chapter Two, "'Give the Devil His Due': Judge Holden's Design in Blood Meridian," Hillier critiques Judge Holden's "conscious evil" and his effort to spread his bad influence via an analysis of the novel's intertextuality with the Synoptic Gospels, Milton's Paradise Lost, Melville's Moby-Dick, and Boehme's religious philosophy. The most illuminating part of this analysis is how Boehme's Devil resembles Judge Holden, which helps to further illustrate his evil design. In Chapter Three, "'Antic Clay'?: The Competing Ethical Appeals of Blood Meridian," Hillier complements the previous chapter's study of evil by "enquiring into whether the universe of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian presents an alternative moral philosophy to Judge Holden's...