Blood Meridian and the Depiction of Violence Anonymous 10th Grade

Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian is seen by critics as a uniquely violent and powerful work of modern literature, and McCarthy achieves such an arresting mood through the sheer depravity of the deeds described, in conjunction with the contrast conveyed by momentary acts of humility. McCarthy makes even more vivid and degenerate the actions of the group through Judge Holden by expressing the violent thoughts and justifications for their violence from the eyes of an horrific and twisted killer. Less fearsome scenes do sometimes emerge, but are meant to be understood in contrast with the barbarity of McCarthy's episodes and characterizations.

The violence portrayed in Blood Meridian is of such barbarism and atrocity that it leaves the reader aghast by the deeds perpetrated. The reader is immersed within this world of terror and violence in the first pages of the book, as the kid finds himself thrown into several conflicts and affrays as he sets off from his homeland – his first being in a religious assembly as the Judge enters and accuses the preacher of being a criminal, thus erupting the place into gun shots, ‘already gunfire was general within the tent … women screaming … folk trampled underfoot in the mud,’ and again as the...