Passing Time in McCarthy’s The Passenger: Nothingness and the Creation of Precarious Meaning

ABSTRACT McCarthy’s The Passenger is a meditation on the fact that everything passes. Indeed, Bobby Western is tormented by his sister’s suicide and the hole that this has left in his life. However, the novel not only looks at the loss of individual life, but of whole civilizations/worlds that have been eradicated through the power of time’s passing. The novel’s several references to these almost-forgotten worlds is salient because, situated between a recent past marked by unspeakable barbarity and a future darkened by the shadow of nuclear annihilation, Bobby foresees the twilight of the meaning-making practices that make sense both of his life and of his world more broadly. Bobby contemplates the indispensability of narratives to imbue meaning and sustain worlds, while also recognizing the thin foundation upon which they stand. Indeed, the novel is an exploration of the power of literature as a meaning-making practice in the face of its inevitable erasure. Further, the article examines Bobby’s transformation at the end of the novel. This article argues that his desire to learn how to pray, among other things, demonstrates his openness to transcendence and hope. Instead of searching for the origin of darkness, Bobby ultimately accepts the mystery of creation.