SYNOPSIS
An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west."
Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, Blood Meridian is an epic novel that traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennessean who stumbles into a nightmarish world in which the market for Indian scalps is thriving.
MY INITIAL TAKE
My initial take of this book is quite complicated. This book is shocking, horrifying, and shows depravity on a mass as well as an individual scale, yet this book is moving, spiritual, and shows scenes of wonder and beauty.
The synopsis may be sparse, but truly telling of how this book is not really about the events at all. Events happen as we trace the kid, a young teenager heading west, as he becomes a scalp-hunter and travels with the Glanton Gang, but the novel’s meat is its intelligent and questioning dialogue and its description of the world in which the characters live in, a world of brutality and bloodshed.
I may not be familiar with the western genre, but this is no Tombstone. This is not a tale of independence and free-spiritedness. These are not characters who hold onto their values in a world filled with gore and heartless depravity. These characters are black-hearted villains who callously beat, rob, rape, and slaughter their way across northern Mexico. They are the terrors who intimidate one into doing what they want. They are the ones who kill, not because they are card-carrying villains, but because they wanted money or found you an annoyance.
The morality of the characters is not white and black, but rather dark-grey and black. The characters who are not completely depraved, still murder and act indifferently to the actions of far worse offenders.
WHAT I LOVE
Now, in the prior section I talked briefly about “beautiful” language, but I decided to save it for this section.
I absolutely must say that I think the prose is artistically done. McCarthy’s style shows scenes amazingly, but in trade, I find it very difficult to understand at times. I really don’t know how to describe it, but it is almost poetic in its elaborate and admittedly purplish ways. I feel as we move across these vistas of violence, we see a sense of callousness as violence becomes increasingly meaningless to its perpetrators and the distant-yet-clear language perfectly shows that.
Ultimately, This novel is an artistic masterpiece that paints beautiful and nightmarish landscapes as it delves deeply into the nature of violence and whether there is meaning behind it.
LOVING CRITICISM
The novel’s focus on artistic merit can feel boring to those who enjoy an engaging story and a proper plot and conclusion. Its complex prose can shut out those who prefer clarity, and can be hard to read due to the convoluted style and unique punctuation usage. The violence, which throughout the book occurs to adults, children, and animals, is definitely a nonstarter for those with a sensitivity to violence or dislike of it.
MY FAVORITE CHARACTER
The book has plenty of characters, with most of them without introduction and none likable, though there are two characters in particular that I find interesting: the kid and Judge Holden.
The kid is an interesting character, yet like many characters, he is very enigmatic. The narrative follows his story, which many may say makes him the protagonist, yet the narrative says very little about his thoughts and actions. This is compounded by the fact that during his time in the Glanton gang, the narrative shifts to follow other events, some of which the kid does not appear and at least a few where he is not even present for.
The beginning of the book describes him as an illiterate, brutal, and violent person. He is generally indifferent towards the depravity of his cohorts, and participates in the violence perpetrated by the gang, against natives and later any who cross their path.
Yet, he is shown in some scenes to have a sense of pity and even performs acts of mercy occasionally. He is one of the few who helps other members of the gang. Notably, he is also one of the few who refuses to be afraid of the judge, where the others avoid him at all costs.
He befriends ex-convict Toadvine before they both join the gang, and latter befriends a fellow member, the ex-priest Tobin. Ultimately, the kid is cold, pragmatic, and generally indifferent towards other people, but he does show near the end more complex emotions such as a reluctance to kill when not necessary and does seem troubled by the violence he perpetrated with the gang in retrospect.
The other character of interest is Judge Holden. Whereas the kid seems to be merely cold, violent, and unempathetic, the judge is a true monster. He is a cool, somewhat-friendly, knowledgeable, well-educated, and philosophical man, in every way different from the kid. Though they are both brutally violent and have no problems with it, Holden goes out of his way to commit violence, beating out even Glanton in brutality towards people and animals and is even implied to be a pedophile.
He functions as the unofficial second-in-command of the Glanton gang, yet no one really knows anything about them. Every member claims to have met him at least once before joining the gang, and he joins after mysteriously waiting for the gang in the desert. The gang’s feelings of dislike towards him range from the scalphunter Brown’s discomfort to Tobin’s fear. The only two who don’t feel this way are Glanton and the kid, the first indifferent and the latter dismissive.
He is described as youthful, hairless, and entirely too pale for comfort. He argues that murder is the most noble of sports, and argues the philosophical points of this. He declares mastery over all life, and uses this as justification for his recordkeeping of all living things they come across. his philosophy is depicted in the line, "Whatever exists without my knowledge, exists without my consent." He is shown half-dressed and nude frequently, dancing to fiddle-music in the moonlit night. Ultimately, he is implied to be eternal in the book’s extremely ambiguous ending.
SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK?
Honestly, this is a hard question. The book may seem to be historical fiction, but one doesn’t have to know the history to read it. It definitely is an adult fiction, and those who have difficulty with violence should avoid it. Sexual violence is never shown , though the after effects are, particularly rape-murder. Those who have difficulty with or don’t like elaborate and complex prose styles should avoid.
In the end, the only people I would recommend this book to are people who enjoy books for artistic and literary purposes as much as entertainment, have no issues with McCarthy’s style, and can stomach brutal violence.
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