Student Question
Does the character Anton Chigurh's name in Cormac McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men" have any specific meaning or nationality?
Quick answer:
Anton Chigurh's name in Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men does not have a specific meaning or nationality. McCarthy intentionally chose a name devoid of clues to keep readers focused on Chigurh's actions and character rather than his background. One interpretation suggests the name may evoke the relentless and painful nature of chiggers, tiny parasitic mites.
One possibility that always occurs to me when I read the name "Chiguhr" is that McCarthy may be playing on the word "chigger." As anyone who has even been bitten by chiggers knows, the pain is intense, and chiggers are relentless and difficult to avoid. They cannot be seen and seem to be everywhere; one never knows when to expect a chigger bite. All these traits seem relevant to the character Anton Chiguhr.
For anyone who has been lucky enough never to hear of chiggers, here is a definition of "chigger" from Steadman's Medical Dictionary:
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The six-legged larva of mites of the family Trombiculidae,parasitic on humans and other vertebrates and inflicting abite that produces a wheal accompanied by intense itching.Also called harvest bug , harvest mite , jigger , red bug .
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Chigoe.
It's very interesting that you would ask this particular question, as my older brother was actually in the movie...
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version ofNo Country for Old Men, and while they were on set in Texas, Cormac McCarthy stopped by for one day to offer advice to the Coen brothers and to see (which must have been fascinating) what the story he had created in his mind and on paper looked like on set.
My brother is a huge fan of McCarthy, and took a bit part in The Road just so he could be in another movie based on his books. He spoke to him for a while that day on location, and asked him the exact same question you posed above, so in this case, I can give you an answer straight from the author. What he told my brother was that he intentionally gave the character Anton Chigurh a name devoid of clues as to nationality or origin so that readers would concentrate on who Chigurh was in the moment, without focusing on the background that created him. It's genius, to me, because it's another way his story does not insult us as readers. To McCarthy, not everything needs to be explained, nor is the explanation even that important, it's all the character in this case and his role in the story. The Coen brothers also achieve this with Javier Bardem in the movie version when they give him an accent that's impossible for the viewer to identify.
I believe you are correct, and I would recommend watching the behind-the-scenes version of the film since that was the intent in the movie. Actually, even the costumer had the task of creating a wardrobe that did not reflect any particular ethnicity, time period, etc. as well.
I was initially thinking that the name "Anton" might be of some European descent, such as Russian, or even that the name might be short for "Antonio" or "Anthony", but his physical features and his last name seem to contradict these assertions. Of course, "Chigurh" is much harder to pinpoint, and this seems to be Cormac's intent.