Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West

*Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West* (usually referred to as just *Blood Meridian*) is a novel written by Cormac McCarthy. Published in 1985, the novel is based on the real-world escapades of the murderous Glanton gang (scalp hunters who murdered countless Native Americans during their year-long reign of terror).

## Characters

* "The kid"
* Judge Holden
* John Joel Glanton
* Louis Toadvine
* Ben Tobin
* Captain White
* Bathcat
* David Brown
* White John Jackson
* Black John Jackson
* Reverend Green
* Old Sydney
* The hermit

## Publisher's Summary

*Blood Meridian* is an epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, brilliantly subverting the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the Wild West. Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into a nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.

## Full Summary

### Chapter I

The story begins with the kid - born in 1833 to a mother killed birthing him - running away from his home (presumably) in the Deep South. He crosses the South - visiting the cities of Memphis, Saint Louis, and New Orleans. While in New Orleans, the kid fights with sailors until he is shot by a boatswain. The kid is tended to by a tavernkeeper's wife for two weeks. After leaving, the kid takes a boat into Texas. In the year of 1849, the kid buys a mule and rides into the town of Nacogdoches.

In a ratty canvas tent, the Reverend Green preaches to a full house. The kid enters the tent during the Reverend's sermon. A man with a long moustache and wide brim hat strikes up a conversation with the kid. It is then that an enormous bald man enters the tent. The Reverend stops his sermon. The visitor to the sermon reveals that the Reverend is an illiterate impostor, a child murderer, and one who has congress with animals. The Reverend attempts to rebut these allegations but fails. The crowd that was enraptured by the Reverend just minutes before forms a lynch mob. A young teamster exits the tent during this. The kid follows. The duo walks towards a hotel as the Reverend is murdered by the crowd. The visitor to the sermon - the Judge - is sat at the bar of the hotel. A crowd gathers around the Judge and begins to discuss the Reverend. The Judge callously reveals that everything he alleged against the Reverend was a tapestry of lies. The crowd laughs.

Two days later, the kid meets Toadvine in the hotel. By this time, the teamster has left - his room empty. The kid is walking to an outhouse (dubbed a batboard jakes) when he meets Toadvine. They almost immediately begin a brutal fight - both fully wishing to kill the other. The fight is ended by an interloper smashing the kid with a club. The kid wakes up the next day to find Toadvine staring over him covered in mud. The kid and Toadvine decide to quit their fight. The kid gets his boots and gives Toadvine's knife - presumably lost during or immediately after the fight - back to him. Toadvine grabs his hat - covered in mud - and puts it back on his head before entering into the hotel. Toadvine asks the barman for a man named Sydney.

The barman tells him but attempts to warn Toadvine from visiting "Old Sydney". Toadvine responds to this by setting a fire underneath Old Sydney's door. Once Old Sydney opens the door, Toadvine brutalizes Old Sydney. The kid joins in - kicking Old Sydney in the jaw on Toadvine's orders. By now, the fire that Toadvine started has spread out of control. A clerk runs at Toadvine but is beaten by Toadvine and the kid. Toadvine runs out of the street screaming for joy and still covered in mud. The kid gets his mule from the Spanish family he was boarding it with and rides off. By now, the hotel is firmly on fire. The Judge is watching the hotel burn. When he sees the kid, he sets off in pursuit on horseback.

## See Also

* My Confession: Recollections of a Rogue by Samuel E. Chamberlain
* Butcher's Crossing by John Williams
* The Final Challenge by Dale Van Every
* No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
* Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
* Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down by Ishmael Reed
* Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
* Midnight Rider by Kat Martin