Book Review: Blood Meridian, Or, The Evening Redness in the West

McCarthy, Cormac. Blood Meridian, Or, The Evening Redness in the West. 2010 Modern Library Edition ed. New York, NY: Modern Library, 2010. Print.

 

Many consider Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian too violent to read. Violence begins onGUEST_e7b7a5bd-5894-4e82-907d-da212ef1d4e8 the second page and continues unabated to the end. McCarthy delivers a treatise on man’s inhumanity to man in the form of genocide. Blood is a constant theme as blood is spilled in one senseless massacre after another. Blood is not the result of conflict, but the reason for it.

McCarthy weaves what could be a series of short stories describing the worth or lack of indigenous people’s lives in the latter half of the nineteenth century west. The story, seen through the eyes of the narrator, follows the Kid and a gang of killers. McCarthy’s narrator never allows the reader inside the mind of the characters. We learn only what McCarthy wants as he develops his characters. He forces the reader to imagine one’s vision of the murderous thoughts. He is masterful in constructing his performers while forcing his readers to judge them.

McCarthy uses understated allegory to deliver messages that express what the characters are or what they represent. Spitting is used throughout as a symbol of the low regard the men have for anything, including human life. The insult of the act says more than dialogue could deliver. Wolves are symbolic actors. Almost daily, we see wolves. The humans and the wolves are representative of hunters looking for easy prey. The only difference, wolves kill for survival.

Glanton and his gang are inherently immoral, evil, clichés of bad guys in black hats. The governments of Mexico and the United States, equally evil, legitimatize genocide. This allowed for the ferocious and persistent murder and attempted extermination of the native peoples of both countries.

Genocide is the predominant theme. Except for the Delaware’s, the Indians are shown as savages. This holds even when the Diegueño Indians rescue the Kid and the ex-priest. “They would have died if the indians had not found them” (312). The narrator refers to these people as savages, as aborigines. “they saw the halfnaked savages crouched…” (312).

Two central characters, Glanton and the Judge, build upon the theme of genocide. Glanton, when he kills an old Indian woman sitting in the square of an impoverished Mexican village. When he sees three of his men squatting with her, he dismounts and kills her. “The woman looked up. Neither courage nor heartsink in those old eyes. He . . . put the pistol to her head and fired” (102). On the very next page, he confirms his complete contempt for life when he tells the only Mexican in his band to scalp the woman’s corpse with these chilling words, “Get that receipt for us” (103). She is nothing more than a hundred-dollar bounty.

The reader becomes almost inured to the violence. Once the butchery began, it seems as though there can be nothing more disturbing—there is—the Judge is evil incarnate. The gang surprises and attacks a large Indian encampment, “the partisans [Glanton’s men] nineteen in number bearing down upon the encampment where there lay sleeping upward of a thousand souls” (161). The Judge leaves the devastated village with a captured child, a ten-year-old boy. He treats the child humanely, and the boy becomes somewhat of a mascot. Three days later, the depth of the Judge’s evil is shown. “Toadvine saw him with the child as he passed with his saddle, but when he came back ten minutes later leading his horse the child was dead and the judge had scalped it” (170). The reader is left to wonder if the Judge killed the boy because he thrives on murder, or if he defiled the child and killed him afterward.

McCarthy’s colorful and graphic language adds significantly to the ability of the reader to see, understand, and experience the scenes and settings. Short and straightforward, his portrayal of the gang as they cross the desert, conveys in a few easy to read lines, in which the reader can feel, and smell the riders. “They rode on, and the wind drove the fine gray dust before them and they rode an army of graybeards, gray men, gray horses” (259).

The Kid, born into a violent world, dies a violent death forty-five years later. Some assume that the Judge, a pedophile, and sexual deviant, rapes the Kid and leaves him for dead. We’ll never know the answer.

McCarthy’s final message to the reader, evil cannot be eradicated; it lives forever.

2 Comments

  1. Jonathan Cramer

    Nice work 🙂

    Please update my email. Soon this one will be deleted and I like your reviews

    Reply
  2. mesloan1@aol.com

    George, Very impressive review, but I guess I am becoming more empathetic in my old ages………I would probably not get very far in this book. However, I think there is great importance to be forewarned as to what kind of material you are about to read.  This saves you from wasting a look of time before you decide you don’t want to read it.  However, you did say the violence starts on page 2, so I guess that would be soon enough. Mike

    Reply

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STUCK? REACH FOR HELP

Recently I was working on a new scene from Book II of the Liberty Trilogy. Reading it aloud, I noticed a decided lack of personal attributes. I needed to give my character something to show of himself.

A few years back, I bought five books by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi designed to help the writer with characters and settings. I keep the books within arm’s length. However, more often than not, I forget them. I reached for The Positive Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Attributes.

Searching the index, I couldn’t find a trait that fit what I had in mind. Oh, well, find something. I noticed three characteristics that gave me an idea of how to rewrite several paragraphs. When finished, I was happy with what was now on the paper. I decided to keep the guide on my desk.

Days later, I needed another clue. Reaching for the guide, I noticed the book on my desk was The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Flaws.

I reread the scene and decided the character flaws made for a more compelling character and storyline than positive traits.

Thanks, Angela and Becca.

3 Comments

  1. Terry

    Checked out the format on the negative, looks good!
    We are all a work in progress. Thanks!
    Terry

    Reply
  2. SallyKimball

    You are tenacious! S

    Sent from my iPhone

    >

    Reply
  3. jkroyce

    Often our villains are more interesting than our protagonists. That’s probably because we let them show all of their warts. So what you say makes perfect sense, Letting our protagonists reveal their darker side makes them more interesting.

    Reply

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SIP Writers Retreat

Today is the second day of the SIP Writers Retreat. Haven’t heard of this retreat? Try Shelter-in-Place.

I always write more when attending some type of retreat or isolation. Confined to the house, my tasks (excuses) are significantly reduced. The Boss has forbidden my daily visits to breakfast places, Starbucks, and any other activity requiring travel beyond the driveway. I am allowed to pick up the newspaper.

Yesterday, I edited work from a few days ago. When it was perfect, I sent it to a writer friend in Oregon. I was hoping for, “it’s great,” instead it came back bleeding from MANY editorial comments. I called her and expressed my displeasure with her complete lack of comprehension of my masterpiece. I may have dropped an F-Bomb or two.

An hour or so after the call, I went back and examined her inflammatory comments. Out of kindness for her effort, I made over half the changes she suggested. Now, mind you, my work was masterful; I made the changes prop up her ego.

Then I wrote the scene where I kill off the second most popular character. I tried editing and rewriting the work—the writing sucks—big time.

Guess what—I sent it to Oregon.

1 Comment

  1. Violet Moore

    Great post, George. I’m using your SIP retreat idea to examine my NIP, my new acronym for novel in progress. I’m not the best self-critic, so I may need to send my chapter to your writing pal in Oregon for a second opinion, even if it results in chopping up my prose.

    Reply

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