The Deathless Dance Of Violence In Blood Meridian

As a controversial contemporary American writer, Cormac McCarthy is known for the relentless, savage violence. Violence, bloodshed and salvation of doomsday are the most horrible themes in his novels. Only a small group of readers in the United States admire him, not to mention the readers in China. His fifth work Blood Meridian is an experimental novel set in the American West and it breaks the traditional image of West. The novel has caused the attention of critics and starts his Western series. From the view point of a fourteen-year-old child, the novel truly represents the Indian massacre in United States-Mexico borderlands in the mid-19th century. Blood Meridian is thought to be plotless and consists of fragmental violence. It reveals the darkness of human nature. The violence becomes the only way to survive in the West. McCarthy shows his view of deathless violence, which becomes the standpoint of this thesis’analysis. This thesis analyzes the violent West and cruel Westerners in the Wild West in the way of textual analysis and relates the novel to its historical background to reveal the nature of violence, arousing people to rethink the cruelty of war.This thesis is divided into five parts. The first part is the introduction of McCarthy, his works and Blood Meridian, emphasizing the violence tradition in McCarthy’s works. Moreover, it summarizes the domestic and overseas study on Blood Meridian and states the significance of the thesis.The second part probes the violent and absurd West. It shows the difference between the mythic West and real horrible West that described by McCarthy to reveal original violence in human heart. The third part depicts the violence in the Westerners. By analyzing the violent actions of the two main characters, it expresses the desire of free and detestation of violence. The fourth part analyzes the discourse of violence in the novel. It studies the violence deeply and analyzes the real history that the novel is based on to reappear the history of Indian massacre in the front of reader. In the end it uncovers the theme of deathless violence in depicting the immortal image of Judge Holden. The fifth part is the conclusion of the thesis. Apart from summing the entire thesis up, it emphasizes the realistic significance of decipherment of violence nature. The human will see the hope only by facing the cruel violence and fighting against violence.