An Analysis Of Ethical Choice In Blood Meridian From The Perspective Of Multiple Landscapes

Blood Meridian is one of the representative works of American writer Cormac McCarthy,ranking third in New York Times' “Best American Novels published in the past 25 years”.The novel takes an anonymous kid as its protagonist.He follows the scalp hunters led by Glanton to slaughter Indians in the western America.Yet with his humanity gradually burgeoning,he begins to question violence,gives up killing,and eventually grows up into an ethical adult.This thesis approaches the generation of his ethical consciousness from the theory of landscape and ethical literary criticism,and argues that the kid's ethical choice is shaped by the shift from one landscape to another.Three representative landscapes in the novel are selected in this thesis,namely,the geographical landscapes represented by wasteland,the Sonoran Desert and etchings,the cultural landscapes represented by cantina,church and ceremony,and the social landscapes represented by idiots,old women and a little girl,to analyze the process of ethical choice of the kid.In the geographic landscape,the kid's animal factor suppresses his human factor,so the kid's thought and action are controlled by his animal factor.In the cultural landscape,the kid's animal factor gradually diminishes and the humanity gradually burgeons.In the social landscape,the kid actively helps his injured companions,starts to reflect on the slaughters.With the maturity of his human factor,the kid finally completes his ethical choice.To be specific,the thesis is mainly made up of five chapters.Chapter One is the introduction.It introduces Cormac McCarthy and his works,and gives a review containing the domestic and overseas research of Blood Meridian,the theoretical framework of the thesis,and the significance of the study.Chapter Two analyses the ethical meaning of the wilderness in the geographical landscape.The wasteland,the Sonoran Desert and etchings are the places where Glanton gangs implement the law of jungle,which reflects the suppression of the animal factor over the human factor.Chapter Three analyses the burgeoning of humanity in the cultural landscape.Under the influence of the cultural landscape,the animal factor is confronted with the human factor in the kid's heart.His ethical consciousness is stimulated by such cultural landscapes as cantina,church and ceremony.Chapter Four analyses the ethical choice of the kid in the social landscape.In the face of the entanglement between violence and ethics,the protagonist restrains his brutish desire and his ethical consciousness matures.Chapter Five is the conclusion that the landscape witnesses the protagonist's switch from the wilderness to civilization,helping him complete the dual growth of body and spirit from “kid” to “man”.