Essay Questions

Why did McCarthy choose the title The Crossing? What significance does this have to Billy's story?

Billy Parham's story is mainly about the action of crossing: the crossing of societal boundaries, the crossing of morals, the crossing of borders (United States and Mexico), the crossing from civilization into nature, and the crossing from childhood into adulthood. Billy's main character trait is “crossing”. He defies those who tell him to kill the wolf in an effort to save it. He struggles to cross the Mexican border to save the wolf. He crosses through the United States and Mexico to find Boyd. He crosses his own moral boundaries to survive. By the end of the book, he has crossed from an optimistic child to a cynical adult. McCarthy invests the concept of the “crossing” with mythological significance. The crossing of the threshold is meant to show a great change in personality. Often, in Greek mythology, when a character crosses a threshold, they loose something. As a story of crossings, Billy's story is a story of loss.

Why does Billy attempt to return the wolf to nature? What does it's death signify?

The wolf represents innocence to Billy despite its violent nature. As, by Billy's time, the American West has been closed, the wold represents the last vestiges of the frontier. It is a nature creature in a world increasingly ruled by roads and borders. Billy's struggle to save her mirrors his own growing maturity. All the guilt Billy feels in the story relates to the wolf. By its death, Billy first understands loss. It is the loss of innocence, loss of nature, and loss of purpose. When Billy looses Boyd later on in the book, he is truly lost. Just as the wolf has died, his entire background and home has been lost. In a paradoxical way, the wild nature of the wolf was the only thing connecting him to civilized society. The death of the wold is Billy's first true crossing into a failure that defines his story.

What happens to Boyd? What thematic significance does his fate have?

It is never made clear what happens to Boyd after he leaves Billy. Billy, at first, believes he became a great bandit, but then learns the stories of that bandit are older than Boyd and him. Later, Billy finds a grave which people suggest to him is Boyd's, but it is impossible to know. Even if the bones Billy recovers are not Boyd's, it gives Billy closure on his brother. When Billy is attacked by the bandits on the road, the loss of Boyd's bones signifies the final, greatest loss to Billy. His last goal is destroyed just as the wolf was. Billy has nowhere to return to now. Not even the idea of Boyd, his last link to the world, can save him. Once more, Billy has crossed too far and lost everything. Just as Boyd's identity is lost to the unknown, Billy's future too is lost to the unknown.

What is the meaning of the gypsies and the airplane at the end of The Crossing?

The gypsies and the airplane Billy meets at the end of the book is McCarthy's rendering of the “Ship of Theseus” philosophical problem. If an object is completely rebuilt piece by piece, is it the same object? The issue of the two planes present the same issue to Billy. It is unclear which plane the gypsies have exactly. They clearly have a plane that is the same to the other one, but is it the correct one? Can it be correct if both are exactly the same? The aeroplane is simply the modern equivalent to the ship and the gypsies are a traveling people without an exact home. It is the same issue which occurred with Billy and Boyd. Both are broken down by their journeys, but only Billy remains. Like the ship or the airplane, it is unclear if the bones Billy finds are even Boyd's bones. The question is if it is the same Billy from the start of the book. By the end of the book, Billy is a far different character. He is not even sure who he is by the end of his journey. The Crossing's main conundrum is the problem of identity.