Despair: An Existentialist Interpretation Of Blood Meridian

Cormac McCarthy is a great American living novelist. Blood and violenceare the eternal themes of his works. Blood Meridian, based on an actual memoir:My Confession: Recollections of a Rogue of Samuel Chamberlain, a member ofthe actually existent Glanton Gang, describes the band of scalp hunters whooperated in the borderlands between Southwestern United States and NorthernMexico in the period following the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). As afictionalized historical book, Blood Meridian reveals that history and goesbeyond that, exposing the inner side of the history, provoking the thinking of thewar in that history, revealing the tragedy brought to people by the war, and thenothingness of their existence, their agony and despair in that absurd war world.Besides violence and war, Blood Meridian is greatly concerned about life and thecurrent world.Through Sartrean literary existentialism, this thesis attempts to analyzeBlood Meridian from three aspects. First is the nothingness in the amoral, lawless,godless world in Blood Meridian. In other words, everything is meaningless, andtheir existence has no meaning at all. Second is the agony and despair in theanxious world. In such a world, everyone is in a bitter situation and there is nohope for the people in it to get out of this situation, since the world is itselfviolent and absurd. Their fate is doomed. Third is the futility in the freedom tochoose. Whatever they choose, they are destined to fail since their action iswithout any actual meaning.