Research Paper on Blood Meridian
The Brutal Men of the Old West Death everywhere you turn, having no one to trust, and having to survive in the harsh landscape of the West is no easy life. Being able to kill recklessly without any punishment. Everything being so corrupt, that government’s pay people to kill. This was the lifestyle of a westerner during the 1850s who were also dehumanized and corrupt because they killed others for profit. During this period cults would kill Indians, children and woman alike, and recieve rewards from the government for bringing back their scalps. In Cormac McCarthy’s western American classic, Blood Meridian, the author uses violence to exemplify the brutality of men and how inhumane westerners in this period behaved.
Throughout the novel, Blood Meridian, members of the Glanton Gang kill Indians and take their scalps in exchange for money from the Mexican government which shows how corrupt not only the people are, but even the government during this time period. “Adopted from an actual episode dating from the late 1840’s, when the Mexican government paid American mercenaries episodes of slaughter and mayhem” (Parini 180). This proves to readers that this book is not completely fiction and gives the reader an idea of what is happening less than two hundred years ago. The Glanton Gang relentlessly kills people inlcluding the elderly and children alike. “He took the skinning knife from his belt and stepped where the old woman lay and took up her hair...and passed the blade of the knife about her skull and ripped away the scalp” (98). This is a perfect example of how McCarthy exerts explicit detail to show how heartlessly the Glanton Gang killed Indians. Glanton abruptly shot the woman in the back of the head before scalping her. An innocent woman being slaughtered without reason shows how humans will do anything to satisfy their limitless thirst for wealth.
Throughout the entire book there are endless deaths, but not all are of which are Indians which shows
Throughout the novel, Blood Meridian, members of the Glanton Gang kill Indians and take their scalps in exchange for money from the Mexican government which shows how corrupt not only the people are, but even the government during this time period. “Adopted from an actual episode dating from the late 1840’s, when the Mexican government paid American mercenaries episodes of slaughter and mayhem” (Parini 180). This proves to readers that this book is not completely fiction and gives the reader an idea of what is happening less than two hundred years ago. The Glanton Gang relentlessly kills people inlcluding the elderly and children alike. “He took the skinning knife from his belt and stepped where the old woman lay and took up her hair...and passed the blade of the knife about her skull and ripped away the scalp” (98). This is a perfect example of how McCarthy exerts explicit detail to show how heartlessly the Glanton Gang killed Indians. Glanton abruptly shot the woman in the back of the head before scalping her. An innocent woman being slaughtered without reason shows how humans will do anything to satisfy their limitless thirst for wealth.
Throughout the entire book there are endless deaths, but not all are of which are Indians which shows