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Everything Cormac Mccarthy Use The Aestheticization Of Violence Exposed In Blood Meridian

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Everything Cormac McCarthy writes about in Blood Meridian is merely a fictional story presented through historic facts. The story stars with death everywhere, it emphasizes the harsh landscape of the West during the 1850s. Lawlessness allowed anyone to kill at will, corruption in the government led to killers being paid for eliminating Indians/Mexicans. Violence was the lifestyle of that dehumanized and corrupt society. McCarthy uses violence to exemplify the brutality of men and their inhumane behavior, while embellishing the story with beautiful aesthetic details. The concern is, however, that a reader’s inability to comprehend these details may restrict them to just a violent and distasteful graphic experience of the novel. Whether or not the use of violence is unnecessary and desensitizing for the reader, or it’s a aestheticization for a fundamental part of storytelling remains to be explored. Cormac McCarthy defines humanity with violence. In numerous occasions, he provides detailed descriptions of dehumanizing acts committed against his characters. Not only by cults like the Glanton Gang but also a philosophical villain, Judge Holden. He is portrayed as a personification of pure evil. These characters however do not enjoy being violent, including the main protagonist, “the kid.” Out of all other characters, “the kid” shows the most sense of …show more content…

He provides insight into his beliefs, stating that, “War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god” (McCarthy 259). Judge Holden saying that “War endures” (McCarthy 259), is similar to the saying in Christianity ‘God endures’, which draws parallels between the ideas the Judge Holden expresses in Blood Meridian and the ideas that Christians express. Blood Meridian uses an appropriate philosophical character to present the case that humans have a desire for

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