The kid and Tobin head west, and come across Holden, who first negotiates, then threatens them for their gun and possessions. In the virile warrior culture which dominates that text and to which the reader has become acclimated, seduction into public homoeroticism is a dreadful fate. In 1974 McCarthy moved from his native Tennessee to El Paso, Texas to immerse himself in the culture and geography of the American Southwest. The Glanton gang segments are based on Samuel Chamberlain's account of the group in his memoir My Confession: The Recollections of a Rogue, which he wrote during the latter part of his life. The Sonorans must have become aware of the gang’s acts of savagery, or the bounty on Glanton’s head, because Elias’s army skirmishes with the gang, then pursues them north. Apparently, he's pale and thin and lives in a horrible home back in the early nineteenth century (1845-ish) in the United States. In 1878 the kid, now in his mid-40s and referred to as "the man", makes his way to Fort Griffin, Texas. Yeah, we're sure that'll go over well with the Mexican people. Both are epic in scope, cosmically resonant, obsessed with open space and with language, exploring vast uncharted distances with a fanatically patient minuteness. The kid also meets Louis Toadvine. These men are scattered in the desert but eventually meet back up with one another at a well. Theodicy in general refers to the issue of the philosophical or theological attempt to justify the existence of that which is metaphysically or philosophically good in a world which contains so much apparent and manifest evil. 157-172. The gang also meets a band of Yuma Indians, with whom Glanton conspires to seize the ferry. Wrong. The mark of a huge hand on her little throat pointed out him as the ravisher as no other man had such a hand. He stood six foot six in his moccasins, had a large, fleshy frame, a dull, tallow-colored face destitute of hair and all expression, always cool and collected. Tobin repeatedly urges the kid to fire upon Holden. After more days on the trail, the kid arrives in Bexar, also in Texas, where he goes to a cantina to work in exchange for a drink but ends up brutalizing the bartender. The novel tells the story of a teenage runaway named only as "the kid", who was born in Tennessee during the famously active Leonids meteor shower of 1833. The kid seems to deny all of these ideas, telling the judge "You aint nothin [sic]," and noting the performing bear at the saloon, states, "even a dumb animal can dance.". The kid also meets Louis Toadvine. Luckily for him, he's bought out of prison by a man named Judge Holden who's helping another man named Glanton put together a group to hunt down Apaches and take their scalps for a government bounty. The kid is visited by the Judge in jail, who tells him that he would have loved him like a son had he not poisoned the gang’s enterprise by having some mercy in his heart for those the gang murdered. It basically gets to the point where the Mexicans decide that they don't know who they want to kill more: the Apaches or Glanton's men. "[43] Critic Steven Shaviro wrote: In the entire range of American literature, only Moby-Dick bears comparison to Blood Meridian. Having suggested paedophilia, Shaw then goes back to read other episodes in terms of the judge's paedophilia: the hypothesis thus becomes the premise. The soldiers lead the kid through town, past a jar with Captain White’s head floating in it. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!”, “This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. Blood Meridian Summary We start off by meeting "the kid," a fourteen year-old who decides to run away from home and go it alone in the Old West. Edwin T. Arnold and Dianne C. Luce. "Cormac McCarthy Cuts to the Bone". We just know that whatever it is, it's bad. The kid tells the Judge, “I aint with you,” and parts ways with him. The kid stoically rebuts all of Holden's statements, but when the judge reaches through the cell bars to touch him, the kid recoils in disgust. Toadvine soon arranges for the three of them to be released from prison to join a gang of scalp hunters, newly arrived in the city, in whose company rides none other than the Judge. [27] He expanded Blood Meridian while living on the money from his 1981 MacArthur Fellows grant. "[12] After reading Blood Meridian, Richard Selzer declared that McCarthy "is a genius--also probably somewhat insane.