Anton Chigurh
Anton Chigurh is one of the main characters of the novel. He is a cold-blooded assassin motivated by blood alone. McCarthy intentionally leaves Chigurh's appearance vague and chose his name to be ethnically and nationally ambiguous. Chigurh is merely described as having an olive complexion and stark, icy blue eyes. He is a man of very few words, but as the novel progresses, Chigurh develops an increasingly inflated perception of himself and his cosmic role in the world. He believes himself to be an agent of fate, demonstrated by his tendency to flip a coin in order to decide whether his victims live or die.
Llewelyn Moss
Llewelyn Moss is one of the main characters of the story. He is a veteran of the Vietnam War, a skillful sniper, and he lives a simple life with his wife Carla Jean. He is thrust into the action of the novel one day while hunting antelope in the desert of West Texas. He stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong and finds a case containing 2.4 million dollars. The only survivor at the scene is a man in a car, critically wounded and begging for water. Llewelyn's conscience forces him to return to the scene later that night, where he is met with armed gangsters seeking their cash. This crisis of conscience sets the precedent for Llewelyn's character; he is driven by his conscience, and thus serves as a foil to Anton Chigurh, who totally lacks a conscience.
Sheriff Ed Tom Bell
Sheriff Ed Tom Bell is the third main character of the novel alongside Chigurh and Moss, and his perspective is given the most attention; although the main narrative of the novel is communicated in the third person, McCarthy begins each chapter with a first-person account from Sheriff Bell, written in italics, that reads as a confessional and takes on the tone of journal entries. Sheriff Bell is haunted by his actions in the European theater of WWII, where he abandoned his unit when they were pinned down by German forces, and then later won a Bronze Star for his service. Bell is preoccupied with the changes in American culture in the latter half of the twentieth century and discusses the consequences of what he deems to be moral decay, disillusionment, and the loss of religion.
Carla Jean Moss
Carla Jean is the wife of Llewelyn Moss. She is considerably younger than Llewelyn, only nineteen years old. They met when she was sixteen and working at Walmart; Llewelyn came in and she pointed him toward the sporting goods section, and the rest was history. Carla Jean demonstrates her devotion and love for Llewelyn when Sheriff Bell visits her in Odessa. She and Llewelyn's relationship represents a counterpoint to Bell's perception of young people; they are both undyingly loyal and their feelings toward each other mirror Bell and Loretta's marriage.
Loretta Bell
Loretta Bell is the wife of Ed Tom Bell. She appears in very few scenes in the novel, but is constantly mentioned by Ed Tom as a source of overwhelming love in his life. He is utterly devoted to Loretta and describes her as being the best person he knows.
Carson Wells
Carson Well is a veteran of the Vietnam War and a contract killer whose task is to retrieve the money from Anton.
Torbert
Torbert is a local deputy under the supervision of Ed Tom Bell. Despite the fact that he is a police officer, he has never before had to investigate a murder case or interact with crazed killers like Anton Chigurh.
Lamar
Lamar is Ed Tom Bell’s colleague who is thinking about retiring because of the new wave of violence in the county.
McIntyre
McIntyre is an agent of the DEA who is described as a bit patronizing and full of himself relative to Ed Tom's more self-effacing tendencies.
Uncle Ellis
Uncle Ellis is an uncle of Sheriff Bell who was once a sheriff himself. He keeps track of Ed Tom by writing letters back and forth with Loretta Bell.
Mama
Mama is Carla Jean's grandmother who raised her as her own child. Carla Jean flees to Mama's house in Odessa when Llewelyn realizes that he's in grave danger with the cartels. Mama has cancer and disapproves of Carla Jean's relationship with Llewelyn, especially since it's driven her out of her home and to El Paso while she faces a life-threatening illness.
