In the End

Summary
Earlier, during Moss’ funeral arrangements, Chigurh met Carla-Jean. The two have a brief discussion, and Carla-Jean (on sight of him), knew Chigurh was a mad man. She told Chigurh “you don’t have to do this,” but he replied with no remorse. In the end, he shot her point blank in the face. After leaving the funeral home, Chigurh has his car rammed by a truck. In the street, the two cars are on fire, and Chigurh badly injured his arm. Two boys happened to walk by the wreckage; Chigurh immediately asked them how much one of their shirts cost. The two were puzzled, but Chigurh again asked the question, pulling out a wad of cash from his pocket. The two parties agreed on a cost, and Chigurh used one of the shirts as a sling.
Bell comes over to his uncle’s house (he is a ww2 war veteran). The two have a conversation. The conversation first starts off with how Bell and the Old man are doing. During their talk, they speak of long dead family members. The Old man first mentions his mother, who caused suicide because of his brother’s death during he war. Then he speaks of his father, who was killed in a home invasion, and bravely tried to shoot the invaders with his shotgun even as he was shot in the chest. Then man mentioned his comrades during the war and how he left them behind, even though he had the ability to do so. Bell would be called by the department and here about two boys who found a gun. Coincidently the boys were the two boys who met Chigurh and exchanged a shirt for some money. Bell knew the man was Chigurh and quickly interrogated the only boy left. Bell cut him loose when he realized the boy didn’t have much information. Bell would never find Chigurh. He went to Moss’ family home and spoke with his parents, learning about Moss’ new attitude after the Vietnam War. Bell later went back home, and spoke with his wife; he left a courthouse wife the bowed head of men meeting him. In the final words of the book, and Bell, Bell had a dream. The dream included his father, riding a horse, and holding a rod of flames.

Quote
“And in the dream I knew that he was goin ahead and that he was fixin to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there for me(McCarthy 309).”
Reaction
The story ends the way it started: Bell speaking his mind. The first thing eh said was him being Sheriff, and now he is talking about the end of his career and life. His dream also ends with a disturbing fact: the evil Bell has been chasing and trying to control has not been captured. Bell was a Sheriff because the world needed a lawman, like his father, and grandfather before him. So in his own way, Bell is saying this is endless, if at his fathers time they needed law and so at his time, what does that mean for the future? The future will be the same; another lawman will take Bell’s place, then on and on.