From IMDB,
"The meaning of the two dreams can be thought of as Bell's fear of some final judgment. The dreams are symbolic, so by whom Bell will be judged is up for interpretation.
Bell explains the first dream to his wife briefly, trying not to make too much of it. But the meaning is quite significant. He says his father met him in town and gave him some money, but he (Bell) lost it. This can be seen as Bell feeling as if he were entrusted with something valuable, but failed to protect it. See this as his responsibility as a law enforcement officer, the lives of the people he was responsible for protecting, his father's wisdom, and so on. It's an acknowledgment of his feelings of failure. In fact, he betrayed his duty as a lawman by letting Chigurh get away. As the teller (narrator) of the story, he lies when he says the motel room was empty (though he doesn't lie habitually). The dreams are his unconscious way of telling the audience the truth. He was entrusted as a lawman to get the money from Chiguhr, but instead agrees that he never "saw" him.
The second dream is connected with the first. In the second dream, he says he and his father were riding through the mountains in the old times. His father rode up ahead of him and went on into the cold and dark with some fire. Bell said that he knew when he got to where his father was going, his father would be there waiting for him.
His father going up ahead into the cold, dark night with the fire represents his father passing from the physical world into the afterlife (whatever that may be). The fire could represent Bell's father's lifeforce, or spirit.
Bell knows he's going to where his father went, and as the final curtain starts to come down on his life, he's second-guessing his whole existence. What will his father have to say about it? In short, will his father still be waiting for him in 'heaven' after letting him down?
In those final speeches we see that he is really thinking about how he might be largely responsible for his own failings (the first dream). And for him, going on up ahead into the cold darkness and eventually meeting his father means just what you think: he's heading toward the end and a possible final judgment, either by his father, or God, or whomever. And Bell is afraid that if there is a final judgment, it may be a harsh one. Did he measure up to the old-time lawmen? Did he make his father proud? Did he fail more than any of his predecessors in law enforcement (his father, grandfather, etc.) did? After all, he failed to protect Llewelyn and Carla Jean Moss, and he let Chigurh escape.
He's contemplating what many people contemplate as they get old and the curtain starts to come down on their lives: How should I be judged for the coward that I am?
Another more positive reading of the second dream is that Bell's father "lighting a fire in all that dark and all that cold" is Bell overcoming his crisis of faith. His conversation with his uncle starts out with Bell feeling "overmatched." He tells him how God did not come into his life when he got older as Bell thought he would. Then they discuss the cold-blooded, senseless murder of his ancestor from many years ago. His uncle tells him "watcha got ain't nothing new," meaning Bell's feeling of failure in the face of what he thought was a new kind of world that he couldn't understand. Things were always this way for his grandfather and his father. Bell's father could be seen not as a judgment on his failure but rather the reassurance that the life of a sheriff does have meaning despite the "dark and cold" that it encounters and that God (no particular denomination is implied) is indeed in his life."
I think that explanation makes more sense, of course I doubt anyone unless you read the book had time to analyze the ending because you were shocked at it's sudden ending.
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