Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" Analytical Essay by Nicky
An analysis of the main themes in the novel, ""Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy.
# 151269
| 1,739 words
| 5 sources
| APA
| 2012
| 
Published
on May 31, 2012
in
Literature
(American)
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Description:
The paper offers a brief summary of "Blood Meridian" and identifies the Nietzschean themes in this novel. The paper then analyzes the roles of violence and blood images and specifically highlights the mythical/spiritual/religious themes present in this work.
Outline:
Brief Summary
Nietzschean Themes
How Violence and Blood Play Roles in Blood Meridian
Mythical / Spiritual / Religious Themes
Outline:
Brief Summary
Nietzschean Themes
How Violence and Blood Play Roles in Blood Meridian
Mythical / Spiritual / Religious Themes
From the Paper:
"McCarthy, a Pulitzer Prize winner (for his novel The Road) and highly respected novelist, is said to have gone into a lot of research on the history of the Southwest prior to writing Blood Meridian. And so, while this is fiction, the novel has a basis for its plot. Indeed the Mexican-American War (during which the U.S. annexed Texas) and the concept of Manifest Destiny are definite themes in the novel. Also, there actually was a "Glanton Gang" of rowdy scalp hunters and marauding killers, led by John Joel Glanton. McCarthy researched their antics and movements and uses that historical record very effectively in his novel."Meanwhile, the story features a runaway teenage boy called "the kid," who was born in Tennessee during the Leonids meteor shower in 1833. The kid meets up with the novel's protagonist, Judge Holden in Nacogdoches Texas, and Holden, a mysterious, bald yet very violent man, is impressed with the kid's fighting ability. A gang of men, The Glanton gang, including the kid, go into Mexico and become bounty hunters and make their living killing and scalping Indians. Soon they are killing non-threatening Indians and just about anyone who crossed their path."
Sample of Sources Used:
- McCarthy, Cormac. (1985). Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness In The West. NewYork: Random House.
- Mitchell, Jason P. (2000). Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, and the (De)Mythologizing of the American West. Critique, 41(3), 290-304.
- Peebles, Stacey. (2003). Yuman Belief Systems and Cormac McCarthy's Blood MeridianUniversity of Texas Press, 45(1), 232-244.
- Robertson, Simon. (2009). Nietzsche's Ethical Revaluation. Journal of Nietzsche Studies,Issue 37, 66-90.
- Sepich, John Emil. (1991). The Dance of History in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.The Southern Literary Journal, 24(1), 16-29.
Cite this Analytical Essay:
APA Format
Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" (2012, May 31)
Retrieved June 19, 2013, from http://www.academon.com/analytical-essay/cormac-mccarthy-blood-meridian-151269/
MLA Format
"Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian"" 31 May 2012.
Web. 19 June. 2013. <http://www.academon.com/analytical-essay/cormac-mccarthy-blood-meridian-151269/>