The storekeeper looked at Ballard. Ballard, he said, how old are you?
Twenty-seven, if it’s any of your business.
Twenty-seven. And in twenty-seven years you’ve managed to accumulate four dollars and nineteen cents? (p. 126)
This was a shocker. In the little description McCarthy gives the reader of Ballard via telling, but in the one hundred twenty-six pages of showing action and dialogue, I had imagined him to be at the very least in his forties. McCarthy has allowed us to envision our own character by judging his actions and relationships with others. Pinning down Ballard’s age this late in the novel does a phenomenal thing: It has just added to our knowledge of character; Ballard’s been through a lot to have become so jaded at this young age.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology