Judge Holden In Cormac Mccarthy's Blood Meridian

When studying the works of Cormac McCarthy, one of the strongest threads of connection between the themes of his work and his personal life is a healthy skepticism of religion and its inability to make a difference in an unmerciful world. While this is a belief he disperses throughout his early writing, however, it isn’t until Blood Meridian that he composes a narrative that revolves around exploring this notion. For this, McCarthy shifts the general location of his writing for the first time ever, migrating to the hellish landscape of the American Southwest in the 19th Century; a backdrop and era of brutal nature and extraordinary bloodshed that only serve to complement one another. Here, using the validity of history and setting, McCarthy

With this in mind, it is important to consider the omniscient presence of Judge Holden in the novel as one that personifies McCarthy’s perspective on this issue, showing how readily men thrive in mindless habits of violence and sin when they have the power to do so. Thus, through observing the actions, talents, and perspective of the judge in Blood Meridian, it is clear that his essence intends to portray one thing: the devil himself operating without reserve in a Godless land.
From the time of his inclusion in the story, Judge Holden is a character whose presence demands one’s attention, made evident through McCarthy’s mystifying depiction of his face and aura: “He was bald as a stone and he had no trace of beard and he had no brows to his eyes nor lashes to them. He was a close on to seven feet in height” (6). Walking into a revival tent in the midst of a passionate sermon by Reverend Green, the judge’s appearance immediately shocks those in attendance, causing a halt to all conversation and the service itself (6). With this, he

Here, the judge not only speaks to awareness of his great adversary but subtly admits what distinguishes himself from a true divine entity; this is not a concept that Holden will let slip, however, as he makes a constant effort to stash every piece of the world he finds in a book in an attempt to own them as God does: “Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent” (207). Here, it is evident that Holden has a rivalry with God for ruler not only over humankind but the land itself, and his own title of the judge indicates this pursuit. Furthermore, it is arguable that the judge is able to sense that God has withdrawn from this area of the world, and sees an opportunity to claim more than just the souls of men. In addition, McCarthy also provides parallels to the judge as the devil in the inscription on his gun, “Et in Arcadia Ego,” which translates from Latin to “I too live in Arcadia,” a place that is meant to symbolize a utopian heaven (“Et in Arcadia Ego”). Ergo, it is plausible that the phrase is an allusion to the fallen angel’s former existence, cast out of heaven for a great sin (Geggel). Now roaming a terrain rampant with human suffering, blistering heat, and lack of order, it