The Dark Sky
With the winter storm being blown and the eerie darkness of the night, this was no fairytale of the cowboy riding through a sunny open range. The author’s purpose in Blood Meridian was to inform and describe the harsh reality of the hardships cowboys faced in their everyday lifestyle. Cormac Mccarthy makes it realistic to clear up the misconceptions that are usually connected to the glorious life of a cowboy. When most people think of a cowboy, they think of them as the brave hero of the town, but Mccarthy turns it all around by shining a light on the brutal truth. He says, “They cut the throats of the pack animals and jerked and divided the meat.” It shows that they are uncivilized and have to live like wild animals. With phrases such as “buried their stool like cats” and “crouched like owls,” it compares the animal-like characteristics of their actions. They had to work long hours and didn’t
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It’s so inviting and tempting that it’s hard to pass the opportunity. Cowboys had to face the opposite of this. It says, “they would make no fire” and “slept in caves and on bare stone.” On top of being freezing, they did not have a comfortable place to sleep either. This doesn’t include the dangers and risks they are taking everyday. When the setting shifts towards the end where they encounter the dead bodies with the disturbing wounds, they don’t show any emotion or reaction. Since Indian attacks are so common, it isn’t a huge surprise to them anymore. They are aware of what they have to go through everyday, but it’s still a huge punch of surprise for the reader because it’s so unexpected. The truth has been hiding through the romantic settings, so Mccarthy created a very dark and realistic one to have an accurate description of the event. He reveals the truth by showing that bad weather conditions existed and that it was most definitely not an easygoing