Everything Cormac Mccarthy Use The Aestheticization Of Violence Exposed In Blood Meridian
Everything Cormac McCarthy writes about in Blood Meridian is merely a fictional story presented through historic facts. The story stars with death everywhere, it emphasizes the harsh landscape of the West during the 1850s. Lawlessness allowed anyone to kill at will, corruption in the government led to killers being paid for eliminating Indians/Mexicans. Violence was the lifestyle of that dehumanized and corrupt society. McCarthy uses violence to exemplify the brutality of men and their inhumane behavior, while embellishing the story with beautiful aesthetic details. The concern is, however, that a reader’s inability to comprehend these details may restrict them to just a violent and distasteful graphic experience of the novel. Whether or not the use of violence is unnecessary and desensitizing for the reader, or it’s a aestheticization for a fundamental part of storytelling remains to be explored.
Cormac McCarthy defines humanity with violence. In numerous occasions, he provides detailed descriptions of dehumanizing acts committed against his characters. Not only by cults like the Glanton Gang but also a philosophical villain, Judge Holden. He is portrayed as a personification of pure evil. These characters however do not enjoy being violent, including the main protagonist, “the kid.” Out of all other characters, “the kid” shows the most sense of
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He provides insight into his beliefs, stating that, “War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god” (McCarthy 259). Judge Holden saying that “War endures” (McCarthy 259), is similar to the saying in Christianity ‘God endures’, which draws parallels between the ideas the Judge Holden expresses in Blood Meridian and the ideas that Christians express. Blood Meridian uses an appropriate philosophical character to present the case that humans have a desire for
Character Analysis Of Mal Gorman In 'The Roar'
878 Words | 4 PagesThe novel “The Roar” by Emma Clayton, the distinction between the protagonist [Mika] and the antagonist [Mal Gorman] were stated through Mika’s numerous hateful declarations against Mal Gorman1. Due to these statements, it feels all too natural to hate him and declare him worthy of no mercy. However, I believe that you can’t hate him at all. You cannot hate Mal Gorman, as there is no stable personality to hate.
What Was Edward Isham Early Life
781 Words | 4 PagesAt the age of ten, Edward Isham threw the first punch that led down the long road of a violent lifestyle (Bolton, 1). He grew up without a mother and with an alcoholic and a womanizer role model of a father (Bolton, 102). Unlike most, Isham was uneducated and not involved in the church after being kicked out of both (Bolton, 2). His far from average and tumultuous childhood mirrored his far from average life (Bolton, 101). Edward Isham’s life was not one of a typical poor white man because of his work circumstances, his relationships, and his extremely violent lifestyle.
The Road By Gitta Sereny: An Analysis
1217 Words | 5 PagesAt what point does survival trump morality? Are the choices we make, the right ones? How strongly do those choices impact others? And how dreadful does life have to become to lose faith in a higher power? While McCarthy hints answers to some of these questions through the character’s actions and thoughts, he mostly leaves it up to the reader’s decision.
How Does Maile Meloy Create Conflict In A Short Story
2054 Words | 9 PagesMeloy makes choices as a writer that allow her to examine the idea of violence without having to create big physical scenes to telegraph that idea. Some might call this pulling punches, but the lack of invented drama in the form of violent attacks allows Meloy’s conclusions to have a deeper resonance. The reader can really think about what the characters gain and lose and learn because the stories lack the distraction of bloody murder or conflict with the law. Some might assume the lack of blood is because Meloy is female. Annie Proulx, another prominent writer of stories about the west, most recognizably “Brokeback Mountain,” includes more real violence in her work,
Character Analysis: Fist Stick Knife Gun
1297 Words | 6 PagesLife’s what you make it Can you imagine not being able to choose whether or not you want to be a part of a life filled with violence? Some people are just sucked into it because of choices other people make. For instance, Geoffrey Canada’s mom moved him & his three brothers into to the south Bronx where the journey of violence then began. In the memoir Fist Stick Knife Gun the narrator Geoffrey Canada goes through a series of events that eventually influences him to become the man he is today. Geoffrey Continues to reflect on his experiences and shows how he learned from them being that he grew up very poorly compared to an average kid in a rough neighborhood in the south Bronx where he went through a number of life-changing or eye
Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History Of Violence
360 Words | 2 PagesThroughout the world, violence has occurred in some form in each individual’s life since the beginning of time. Violence is any action, inaction, or structural arrangement that results in physical or nonphysical harm to one or more animals. There are three types of violence to classify the act, which is Institutional, Interpersonal, and Structural. Within each type of violence are specific categories that occur, such as family, religion, educational, corporate, and even economical violence.
Fist Stick Knife Gun Summary
681 Words | 3 PagesGeoffrey Canada does an excellent job of bringing his readers to the streets of the South Bronx and making them understand the culture and code of growing up in a poor, New York City neighborhood in the ‘50s and ‘60s. In his book, Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun, Canada details, through his own childhood experiences, the progression of violence in poverty plagued neighborhoods across America over the last 50 years. From learning to be “brave” by being forced to fight his best friend on a sidewalk at six-years-old, to staring down an enraged, knife wielding, “outsider” with nothing to defend himself but nerve, Canada explains the nightmare of fear that tens of thousands of children live through every day growing up in poor neighborhoods. The book
Annotated Bibliography: The Road By Cormac Mccarthy
495 Words | 2 PagesIt is after apocalypse world where all signs of life are extinct. People and animals are starving, and predatory groups of savages wander around with pieces of human bodies stuck in their teeth. It is both oppressive and disheartening. McCarthy sets an atmosphere like one mediately after the world wars. It is not far-fetched to imagine the possibility of such a sad environment today.
Distortion In A Good Man Is Hard To Find
1466 Words | 6 PagesO’Connor’s use of satire and how morbid the characters give the reader to not sympathize with them because of their pettiness, ludicrous, and so irredeemably gauche character. “O’Connor creates hearty guffaws and cries of horror, then
The Role Of Women In Vandals By Alice Munro
1605 Words | 7 PagesThe monotheistic worldview denotes man as one of God’s favorite creations, a creature given power and free reign over the Earth and its inhabitants. This understanding of man as a near heavenly sovereign over nature is a point that sits in close relation to the idea of power relegated to Alice Munro’s short story “Vandals,” in which a taxidermist, Ladner, seeks to control his environment first through its woodland creatures and then through its human residents. Yet this perception of the taxidermist’s power as all-encompassing is itself part of an imagined reality. It is the perception, the illusion of what he represents that defines him in the eyes of those he abuses. And it is this illusion, taken as fact, that leaves in its wake shattered expectations.
Lester Ballard In Cormac Mccarthy's Child Of God
1187 Words | 5 PagesCormac McCarthy’s novel ,Child of God, is the tale of a violent, dispossessed man living on the outskirts of society. Set in 1960s rural Tennessee, the novel focuses on the life of Lester Ballard, a murdering necrophiliac who seemingly only follows his own rules. Ballard is represented as a despicable, unhuman character, who apparently is, “A child of God much like yourself perhaps” (4). While Ballard repeatedly commits evil acts, one cannot help but find a soft spot for this man who was unloved as child and seems to be a product of his cruel environment. On the surface, Ballard’s actions make him seem alien to “us” (society) but to delve deeper, one discovers a true understanding of Lester Ballard.
Analysis Of Childhood In To Kill A Mockingbird, By Harper Lee
639 Words | 3 PagesWhat could make children grow up so fast and grow into adulthood? Could it be the interactions or experiences children have? At first, it seemed like this could be just the answer, but now in the 21st century it is something else. In the historical fiction novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee described two characters, Jem and Scout, that went from not knowing the truth about their surrounding community, to being more mature after watching a trial about a african american being accused of raping a white women. Children are taught adulthood from innocent childhood by adult guidance, books and magazines, and social media.
Presence Of A Child In Stephen King's Literature
1453 Words | 6 PagesThe presence of a child in Stephen King’s novels must be understood as a collapse of American family structure. King uses them to show the imperfection of adults. They hold diverse positions when it comes to being the instrument of evil and destruction. In his other books children are depicted as the little zombie animals, in some others as the helpless victims of a malevolent entity or the adults and in some as the innocent creatures controlled by malicious spirit itself.
The Character Of Cholly In The Bluest Eye
947 Words | 4 PagesEvil Acts: An essay about the character Cholly from the novel “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison. It is very easy for someone to say that you can choose who you want to be. Even though that might be the case for some, it is not always that simple. In this essay I will argue that the antagonist Cholly is a product of his surroundings and experiences. I will point to certain events in his life that might have caused him to believe he had the right to commit the altogether evil act of raping his own daughter.
Billy Budd
1169 Words | 5 PagesHe is a clever, strong-willed, sly character. He is always mocking Billy with cheeky and provocative remarks. It seems his goal in life is to cause Billy trouble.
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