1999 AP Lit. Exam Prompt: Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Crossing (techniques and impact)

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The Crossing
In the following excerpt from The Crossing (1994) Cormac McCarthy’s novel, the speaker portrays the main character’s responsibility of burying a she-wolf, and in the process, he contemplates of his inner beliefs. This understanding has an intense cause on the protagonist. The excerpt does not offer much background information, although, in the situation of indirect details, the audience is provided with a comprehensive depiction of the protagonist’s incident. McCarthy uses comprehensive, practical diction to make powerful visuals that express the deepness of the narrator’s knowledge. These metaphors, together with abstract spiritual references, and increased by the speaker’s syntax, causes the passage’s somber, venerating mood, and clarifies the profound grief and doubt felt by the main character.
The protagonist experiences several physical struggles and dangers such as sleeping in the cold night to take good care of the wolf. He faced the threat of fighting noises of coyotes. McCarthy utilizes personification by saying, “the coyotes were yapping,” (line 11) and “were calling” (line 12) to demonstrate the fierceness of these animals. Coyotes are dangerous and can easily tear through flesh and bones making the protagonist vulnerable. The narrator also thoroughly depicts the protagonist’s relations with the wolf. With “trousers stiff with blood,” (line 5) the main character “cradles” the she-wolf, …