Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West (1985) is Cormac McCarthy's fifth book. McCarthy is an American novelist. He has written ten novels and he also won the Pulitzer Prize. Blood Meridian was among Time magazine's list of 100 best English-language books published between 1923 and 2005 [1] and placed joint runner-up in a poll taken in 2006 by The New York Times of the best American fiction published in the last 25 years [2]. This novel is known as one of the most violent books in literature. However, in this case the aim of this paper is to focus in other interesting aspect of the story: the use of religious imagery.
Throughout the novel there is a strong religious content, which can be considered ironic due to the extreme violence present in the whole story. Although they seem to be the opposite (religious as good, violence as bad) there are a lot of scenes where we can find them mixed, that is to say, violent actions with religious imagery involved.
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One of the uses of religious imagery in a violent scene is clear seen in page 59: “He pulled his bloody arm against him.
Damn if they aint about a caution to the Christians, he said. They laid up in the shade of a rock shelf until past noon, scratching out a place in the grey lava dust to sleep…” McCarthy uses volcanic images to describe and at the same makes reference to infernal imagery.
Another example is that in the novel there are various burned-out churches along the way “There were no pews in the church and the stone floor was heaped with the scalped and naked and partly eaten bodies of some forty souls who’d barricaded themselves in the house of God against the heathen.” (p. 63) Why did he choose a church to such a violent description? Maybe it is merely ironic, maybe it symbolizes that no God exist at all of at least that he cannot save them from death. All in all, it is clear how McCarthy is always mixing religious with
violence. On the other hand, we can see that apart from religious images in violent scenes, the characters usually make use of some religious terms in ordinary expressions; for example: “He prayed: Almighty God, if it aint too far out of the way of things in your eternal plan do you reckon we could have a little rain down here.” (p.50) “Then he sat his horse with the glass at his chest like a crucifix.” (p.53) “(…) they leaned by turns with pursed lips to the stone like devouts at a shrine.” (p.60) “Nothing moved in that purgatorial waste save carnivorous birds.” (p.67)These are just a few examples of the repeated usage of such terms by the characters who, maybe, manifest them as a signal of faith, or maybe of knowledge as a tool of the educated man, the ones who know about the Bible. In conclusion, Cormac McCarthy shows a mixture of language, situations and different characters to include either violence or religion and even both of them together. It is shown that the author considers religious as a main theme, even if the reason is a mystery to the readers because of the way he presents it. Ironic or not, religious imagery is usually joined with violent imagery in a perfect mixture of both; as mentioned before, with different connotations throughout the novel.
In “The Crossing” McCarthy uses biblical allusions, symbolism, and tonal shifts in order to describe the experience of the protagonist.
In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the author makes various references to the Bible and to religion. Those references also can be compared on how they have changed the way of humans in real life. Along with how the boy maintains his innocence throughout this whole book even when he witnessed events that could’ve changed him. The man tried to the best of his abilities to preserve the innocence of the boy. Through all of the obstacles that they both faced, the man managed to keep the boy safe and even in his last moments he was sure that he taught his boy how to tell when people were good.
By using juxtaposition, McCarthy induces feelings of indignation within the American public, thus prompting an alignment of perception against the perceived threat, the communists. For example, communist and American involvements in
McCarthy simply stresses imagery, setting, and conflict all of which show that effortless decisions can lead to great outcomes.
The McCarthy era is very similar to the Salem Witch trials. They are both similar, because they both dealt with hysteria. Hysteria is an uncontrollable fear or outburst of emotion. Both things had to do with people accusing each other of people being communist, and people being witches.
McCarthy had a way of carrying himself that radiated confidence, and had the ability to convince a whole crowd of something he had pulled out of his hat just moments prior. McCarthy had an elegant way about him, and this aided him in convincing thousands of people that an anti-communism speech was truly what was appropriate for Honest Abe’s birthday. McCarthy’s mentioning of Christianity can be found throughout his speech, such as his comment of, “…that this is the time for the show-down between the democrat Christian world and the communistic atheistic world.” McCarthy introduced the idea of communism being synonymous with Atheism by
The Salem witch trials and the story of Joseph McCarthy are very similar; they both accused innocent people of doing things that were “bad” at the time. The Salem Witch trials were persecutions of men and woman on account of performing witchcraft. Two girls accused a woman of doing witchcraft and then the accusations continued, people accused other people to relieve their own punishment in a last ditch effort to save their lives, but it was in vein. After the witch trials were over “19 had been killed and an elderly man pressed to death under heavy stones”(Linder). “Some accused of witch craft were burned at the stake all in the name of justice”(Brown). Others were finally let out of jail after being in imprisonment for months at a time. Joseph McCarthy was the U.S senator for the state of Wyoming from 1947-1957, the year that he died. McCarthy became the most visible face in public during the time of the cold war in America. “McCarthy pursued unnecessary investigations, imprisonments and unprovoked acts to those who were being accused of being a communist”(Glitterrich). The term McC...
Schopen, Bernard A. "'They Rode On': Blood Meridian and the Art of Narrative." Western American Literature 30.2 (Summer 1995): 179-194. Rpt. inContemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 204. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 8 May 2014.
Imperialism has been a constant oppressive force upon societies dating back hundreds of years. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, illustrates this oppression by providing an instance of its occurrence in the Congo of Africa, while simultaneously setting the stage for The Poisonwood Bible, which is essentially the continuation of the story. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, demonstrates how the Congo is still affected by modern circumstances and ideology. Conrad’s novella acts as a sort of precursor to the events later depicted in Kingsolver’s novel, and this very connection between the stories illustrates the perpetual oppression of imperialism. This oppression is shown through the characterization of the pivotal characters of each respective text.
John Moss, Sexuality and Violence in the Canadian Novel. p. 103 Robertson Davies. The Fifth Business. p. 217.
...hese characters we better and more pure, bad things would might have not happened to them like they did. In this situation, cosmic irony is used to show how someone’s fate can be decided by the life decisions they make. It was only destiny that brought the Misfit and the family together.
Herman Melville’s use of religious images not only demonstrates his genius as a romantic author, but also displays the human capacity for evil. Melville specifically chooses these religious images to make a powerful statement on how evil is used as a weapon against people. Melville’s use of religious imagery is deliberate and even on the verge of calculating. Melville uses religion multiple times to show how being ignorant of one’s surroundings can be incredibly damaging.
Going to church in the ghetto in Birmingham was probably the safest place a mother could send her child. But this is where the irony takes place. The irony makes the church the warzone and place of destruction while the march was the safest place to be. The child was depicted as combed hair, freshly bathed, with white gloves, and white shoes, which is also ironic. The mother had sent an angel dressed in white to a firestorm from hell called church. The mother was completely sure that her daughter was safe until she
A. Michael. Matin. Introduction to Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2008. Print.
Bausch, Richard, and R. V. Cassill. "Heart of Darkness." The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 126-86. Print.