Literary Analysis: Blood Meridian

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Kiahna Brown 12/2/2015 Grinder American Novel Literary Analysis II The Evil in War Blood Meridian was not simply written for the thrill of reading another gory and gruesome novel, but to show through a third person omniscient perspective the true and entirely evil reality of war and destruction. “The good book does indeed count war an evil... Yet there's many a bloody tale of war inside it” (22). This novel implies that the bodies of those in our way is the only road to expansion and progress. McCarthy shows us this through his characters and telling of events throughout the novel that are not so exaggerated from the mindsets of people during the time period in which it takes place. According to Mccarthy, man and violence go hand …show more content…

Including David Brown, who wears a necklace of ears from his enemies and victims he’s crossed. Each character ends up in competition to do the most brutal and malicious deeds. Thus with no loyalties and no rules, every man is there for himself and the promise-breaking and crossing begins. “Moral law is an invention of mankind for the disenfranchisement of the powerful in favor of the weak. Historical law subverts it at every turn.”(250). We often see characters such as the Judge gaining and asserting his control and power by partaking in violent crimes and showing off enemy bodies for their gangs to acknowledge the power that they …show more content…

The only way to expand onto land that is already inhabited, is to kill those that live there and force them to give that up. This was the justification shown throughout Blood Meridian and that American History claimed for their violent and cruel behavior. Death was inevitable in order to get what they had wanted. Blood Meridian and its illustration of this was just shy of accurate when representing the intentions of the time period it was written in and the representation of the evils of war

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