A book once said to be unadaptable. A gory look into the supposed Wild West. A tale of community, wrought to immorality and its consequences. The tale of how powerful choices can be.
Blood Meridian is a book about a child who runs away from home in search of new horizons, both metaphorically and literally. The child, only referred to as the “kid,” leaves his home in Tennessee and travels south wherein he already faces the hardships of being a stranger wherever he goes. From getting shot in a bar, doing odd jobs to get beer, and murdering a man alongside burning a hotel, his life goes down the path of criminality as he knows nothing else besides what has happened to him. Nonetheless, he is still a child in need of a community and he always seeks community whenever he gets the chance, as he first joins a militia group trying to take over Sonora and turn it into an American state. Until the militia is killed in a standoff with a Comanche group, depicted in such a detailed manner.
Past this, he then ends up in Mexico arrested and he ends up picking up a job with the Glanton Gang, who are scalp hunters and kill anyone who they see fit. Much to its history, the gang is tasked to collect scalps of Native Americans and the head of a man named Gomez. Within time, the gang starts to scalp anyone who they feel would make a great “receipt," targeting funerals and innocent people. This is where we see the further evils of the man who is labeled as one of the most evil characters in existence: Judge Holden.
The judge is introduced in the first chapter by falsely accusing a zealous preacher of being a fraud, wanted in the state of Nebraska, raping a little girl, and committing acts of bestiality on a goat. This makes the crowd inside the preacher's tent turn against him and kill him. We then cut to the judge at a bar admitting to not knowing the man, and also admitting to simply making up the accusations, because he felt like it. At first, the crowd is confused. Then, they merely laugh, perhaps in a nervous manner since they realized they murdered an innocent man. The motives of the judge are not clear, yet can simply be chalked up to his wants since there is no single motive for his evilness. Not of revenge or pettiness, simply because he can. It can be chalked up to ownership, as he mentions to a member of the gang, Toadvine, that he is insulted by the freedom of the birds, and if he were in control he would have them all in a zoo. He is quoted saying “Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge, exists without my consent.” Even then, if there is a motive, the motive is unclear as he is shown to backstab and do immoral acts out of the blue. Like throwing dogs off of a bridge with no other motive other than simply doing it. Killing an Apache child after the gang welcomed him and created a friendship with the child. His propensity for violence and leaning towards evil with a charismatic, polite, and eloquent demeanor paints him as an anti-Christ figure. One who understands the complexities of humanity, yet chooses the path of a man leaning towards unspeakable evil. He is akin to a mad scientist, viewing humanity through the lens of a misanthrope viewing the need for order and morality itself, as hindrances towards the completion of goals. A character of pure evil and with full awareness, with n
Yet other members of the gang are shown to share his immorality, albeit with ulterior motives, as if it somehow justifies their immorality. The other members of the gang include Glanton, the leader, Toadvine, Tobin, McGill, the Jacksons, the Delaware Native Americans, and Bathcat. Some of the members have backgrounds of criminality pre-Glanton. Toadvine is shown to have the letters “H, T, F,” branded onto his forehead and have no ears, suggesting a life of crime. The gang slowly loses their members as time progresses, either through standoffs or through internal conflicts. The Jacksons were reduced to one Jackson after one Jackson had enough of the other Jackson’s mistreatment and racism, beheading him with a Bowie knife. McGill is killed in a standoff and is the first member of their group to be scalped. One of the Delaware Native Americans are killed by a bear and the others, much like the rest of the casualties, are killed in standoffs. Violence is a recurring theme in the book and while the gang are seeking to get money, that motive is slowly lost as the members consistently die and fight within each other. More of their inhumanity is shown as they keep a mentally disabled man, referred to as the “idiot” or “imbecile," in a cage. The man is delivered to a woman as if he’s cattle or property to be traded. Every single character is shown to be in complete awareness of their actions, but they rationalize their abhorrent actions.
Every act of abhorrence is shown in graphic detail and dehumanization is shown in every chapter, seeing as how the characters consistently refer to other groups by their slurs and not as people. Even members of the gang refer to their own through slurs, showing how the gang is united in immorality and dehumanization.
Reading this through, I had a slight hope that the kid can come to their senses and somehow redeem themselves before it is “too late”, but can it not be argued that it was already “too late” or perhaps the chance was never there? A tragic past does not justify the actions of a person. The kid's choices directly led to the actions he was willing to commit and they had a choice to redeem themselves long after they had separated themselves from the gang. Whether or not the wounds of the past healed with an infection present, the matter of his violence like murdering a child in his later life shows that he has chosen to not change from his Glanton Gang lifestyle. Perhaps in a different hypothetical “life” he would have worked to redeem themselves after their baptism. Or never met the gang or the judge. Or had a better father. One who did not choose the route of drunkenness. Or perhaps had a mother who did not die in childbirth.
Blood Meridian is a book that delves into the evil that humanity is capable of and showcases how people are capable of such acts. It is a careful and triggering read for those who fail to see how people are capable of choosing evil and how our very actions define us as a person, tragic past or not. A figure like the judge contrasts to the other fugitives who “need” rationalize their own evil actions cannot make this point any clearer.
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