The excerpt from Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy is a description of a brutalized horse and how its death came to be. Although the idea seems simple at first, McCarthy takes the extra step of describing the scene more effectively, using precision only where it is required. McCarthy is selective with his words in the sense that he chooses to use words that connote desperation for survival. There is a feeling of unease when reading the passage because of his diction. The structure of the passage is relatively uncomplicated, but becomes much fuller with careful analysis. McCarthy uses a wide range of literary features, which contributes to the experience of the reader.
McCarthys thorough selection of words enhances the passage. There is an evident pattern in the words, all of which suggest violence and also a struggling for life. The first of these words are foul and ragged. These words are sensory words since they immediately make contact with the readers senses. Foul is a smell and ragged is an appearance. McCarthy will use sensory language more often as the passage progresses. The subsequent line has a few more examples: They had been making forays at night up the arroyo for wood and water and they had been feeding off a dead mule that lay gutted and stinking in the far corner of the yard. They had been attacking at night for resources and had been eating a dead mule, which comes back to the theme of survival. Also note that water, wood, and food are three essential elements of survival, again linking to a struggle for life.
Words such as enormously swollen and grotesque add to the gruesome imagery. The entire line, It had been bitten on the nosein a horror of agonyin the throttled pipes of its throat provides a horrific description of the animal. With the use of words such as eyes bulged out, a horror of agony, drooling, and breath wheezing, it is evident McCarthy is aiming to create an abomination out of the horse. McCarthys reasoning for wanting to create such a hideous creature could be because he was trying to show that there was no contrast between the animal and the rest of the story in terms of violence and despair.
McCarthy makes effective use of sensory language. The sense of sight is abundant throughout the excerpt since the entire passage is an observation. Words such as ragged and grotesque would justify this statement. There is a sense of smell when McCarthy uses words like foul and stinking. Examples of hearing are in the description of the animal; when it was moaning, wheezing, and throttled. There was a flurry of thumps and kicks is another example of sound. Lastly, this line can justify taste: they had been feeding off a dead mule that lay gutted Although it may not be the first sense to come to mind in this example, it still has a horrendous element of taste linked to it. McCarthy seems to try and trigger as many senses as possible in his descriptions because it greatly involves the reader in the scene. It allows the reader to experience the scene with more observations in mind. The line, It had been bitten on the nosein a horror of agonyin the throttled pipes of its throat, would have seemed too subtle and looked over if it was not written the way it was.
McCarthy has a unique style, rich with comparisons and effective word placement. He uses similes sparingly, but ensures that they are valuable to the reader. An example of one of his similes is in the line, with its head enormously swollen and grotesque like some fabled equine ideation out of an Attic tragedy. The swollen head of the animal is being compared to the idea of a fable of horses from an Attic (Athens, Attica) tragedy. Although this is a somewhat strange comparison, it is interesting in the sense that it ties in a mythic element. It also makes the animal appear to be monstrous. Another simile is, its small ears looked like paper spills twisted into either side of a hairy loaf of dough. This comparison makes the ears of the bone appear vivid in ones mind. It should be noted that there are no metaphors in the excerpt though. The language is precise, simple, and straightforward, with no need for metaphors.
There is an evident consideration of syntax in the text. Almost every sentence has they or it as the subject and it is usually at the start of each clause. At the start, they is referring to the party. Later in the passage, it is referring to the hideous animal. The narrative style of the passage is written in this way as to create a feel that the reader is watching. Evidence of this is the first sentence: He looked at them. This switches the eyes from Irving to the reader. Although the passage may seem to reveal little about the party at first glance, it actually reveals some details. The men were clearly struggling to survive since the first few lines explains that they were in an uncomfortable condition; they were foul, ragged, and half crazed, and had been scavenging for resources. The first thing they asked for was whiskey and the next was tobacco, most likely means that they drank and smoked as a relief from all their stress. By positioning the they near the start of the sentence, it allows the reader to immediately grab a hold of the fact that the description is about the party.
There is use of onomatopoeia several times in the piece. A few examples are its breath wheezing in the throttled pipes of its throat. Also, There was a flurry of thumps and kicks. These verbs all sound similar to what they mean. McCarthy seems to have used these specifically to emphasize the already prominent descriptions such as the wheezing and throttling from the horse and the outbreak of noise from the American horses.
The structure of the passage is not complicated strangely, since there have been many instances previously in the novel where it has been. The entire excerpt is essentially one long paragraph with no paragraph breaks. As a first observation, it was noticeable that the first half of the passage is focused on description, whereas the second half is focused on actions. An example of this is, They were foul and ragged and half crazed. From this line onward until the animal is attacked, it is all description. This part of the passage doesnt seem to occupy much time in the plot movement, but rather is narrative. The part starting from the line, The American horses began to mill is all action-based, since the horses are getting antsy and the animal is getting attacked. This part seems to occupy more time in the plot movement since there is something physically occurring. McCarthy seems to have used this separation as a way of allowing the reader to understand the context of the passage at the start, the description, and then engage the action, which is a little more spontaneous and difficult to interpret.
There are absolutely no commas in the text. As readers of McCarthy, it is evident that he has created some of his own rules in regards to the laws of the English language. He has decided to omit commas from this passage because it causes the story to move along more smoothly. If there were commas, they would be interruptions in the passage. The clauses are connected with the use of and. Every time that a comma would be required to connect two sentences, the word and is replaced into that spot. This causes a feeling of haste to accumulate in the reader, as if there are no breaks. In this way, McCarthy simulates a real life observation.
In conclusion, the diction, the style, and the format of this passage create a better image of the gruesome horse in the readers mind. Firstly, there is an abundance of words that tie together a theme of struggling and survival. Secondly, McCarthys direct style to describe the scene allows him to explore the literary features of similes, syntax and onomatopoeia. Thirdly, he structures the passage in a way that would be most effective to the reader he places description first, to set the image in the readers head, and then he engages the reader with an action. These are some of the reasons that make Cormac McCarthys Blood Meridian an American classic.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
McCarthy, Cormac. (1985). Blood Meridian. New York: Random House Inc.
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