“The strangeness of the story of Lester Ballard, the son of God, begins not with the subject matter but with the way the story is told.” Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Vereen Bell, The Achievement of Cormac McCarthy In his 1991 essay, Andrew Bartlett suggests that Cormac McCarthy's Child of God "derives not so much from the strength of Lester Ballard as subject or object but rather from the play of positions assumed by the narrator through whom we see Ballard” (Bartlett 3). That said, much of the novel is based on a third-party narrator's descriptions mixed with first-person accounts from Ballard's other Sevier County residents. Characterized by the community as violent, unpredictable and sociopath, Lester Ballard is alienated from his peers from an early age. Surrounded by a close-knit community located within the isolated confines of the Appalachian Mountains, Ballard is unable to escape the negative characteristics projected onto him by the community of which he is a part. That said, the novel presents a constant struggle between Lester's personal choices and his socially determined well-being. By presenting Ballard as a communal scapegoat, McCarthy emphasizes the role of the community in deciding moral standards. Furthermore, McCarthy presents Lester Ballard through two opposing narratives: one lens that views Ballard sympathetically, a “son of God,” and another perspective from the eyes of the surrounding community (4). Often harsh, subjective, and judgmental, McCarthy uses Ballard's local vision to explore the inherent moral hypocrisies characteristic of the Appalachian region. In doing so, he reveals the community's responsibility for Lester Ballard and his atrocities. To gain a deeper understanding of the social climate that shaped Ballard, one must first consider the historical implications of the region. In the late 19th century, a group called the "White Caps" plagued the Appalachian region, particularly in Sevier County, Tennessee, where McCarthy's novel is set. The vigilante group “threaten[ed] those who deviated from the community's traditional customs” and reacted violently when their authority was compromised (Banker 143). In turn, the group perpetuated national stereotypes of Appalachia as “armed, revenge-seeking hillbillies” (Banker 144). Internally, this historical moment exacerbated Appalachians' tendency to construct identities based on local and national prejudices. Similarly, McCarthy uses this mentality to shape Lester Ballard's identity. In the final chapter of Part I, unidentified common narrators reveal speculation about Leland Ballard, Lester's grandfather: “I'll tell you one thing if he wasn't a soldier. He was a White Cap god” (McCarthy 80). Referring to the White Caps in the last chapter written in first-person narration, McCarthy reminds his reader to consider the significance of this regionally influential group in relation to the fictional community's creation of Lester Ballard. As Bartlett points out, only the first section of the novel employs the voices of characters located in the middle of Sevier County next to Ballard (6). Interestingly, as the citizens' voices disappear in Parts II and III, Lester's isolation and violence increase exponentially. Although Bartlett believes that the communal narrative serves as a “gentle preparation” for Lester's heinous acts in later sections, I argue that the first-person narrative in Part I reveals a vision of the community that made Lester the man he becomes (6 ). begins with Lester forced to leave his home in theSevier County after foreclosure. When the house is put up for auction, potential buyers "arrived like a caravan of carnival people" intending to purchase the house cheaply and knowingly send Lester out onto the street.(McCarthy 3). Lester, unable to understand the insensitivity of his peers, insists that they get their "damn asses off [his] property" (7). However, his protests are in vain and he is eventually removed from the only home he has. Understandably, Lester "could never keep his head straight afterward" (9). This initial experience exposes Lester to the general disdain and disdain his community holds towards him and serves as a catalyst for his mental deterioration. More directly, the community narrative reveals the illogical fear and hatred of Lester inherent in the county. Describing Ballard's punch to a younger boy, one of the speakers admits: “I don't know what it was... We felt really bad. From that day on I never liked Lester Ballard. I never really liked it before. He never did anything to me” (18). A relatively personalized event in the fictional community, not much attention is given to other characters engaging in minor violence and fighting at the same time. However, this local voice expresses the general animosity that the community projects onto Lester. As a result of his alienation, Lester is forced to find comfort in inanimate objects (and later, inanimate people). During the county fair, Lester enters a contest demonstrating his marksmanship only in the hope that his prize will be "those big'ns [stuffed animals] over there" (63). After winning two teddy bears and a large tiger, Lester becomes attached to them as a child would become attached to a toy and carries them around for the rest of the novel. Once again, his strange behavior can be attributed to his ostracism from society. Ironically, the community that isolates Lester is the same community he blindly looks to for appropriate thoughts and actions. For example, when he is at the fair, he sees another man cheating at a game by “trying to guide two fish into his net at the same time” (62). After observing the man for a while and coming to the conclusion that his behavior was acceptable, Lester copies him and begins to cheat himself. Interestingly, it is Lester who is caught and reprimanded for violating the rules of the game. However, it was another member of the community who unknowingly taught and pushed Lester to cheat: this impulse did not originate in Lester himself. A similar incident is described during Ballard's unjustified stay in prison for alleged rape. Another inmate tells Lester, "white pussy is nothing but trouble" and having never considered it, "Ballard agreed that it was. He supposed he had thought it, but he had never heard it said in those terms" (53 ) Once again conforming to the ideas of those around him, Ballard blindly believes and agrees with the things he hears from other members of the community Even when he brags to the other inmates that "all the trouble [in which] he ever found himself…were caused by whiskey or women or both,” he admits that it was only because “he had often heard men say the same thing” (53). Throughout the first part of the novel , it is clear that Lester is simply a byproduct of his environment and the guilty community repeatedly refuses to take responsibility for the savage he has created. On another note, McCarthy's commonplace narrators never directly address the most egregious issues: i his murders, necrophilia, and extreme acts of brutality are all described to the reader by the narrator in third place. 1973.