Chapter 13

This chapter was pretty good. McCarthy once again did a great job at description.

I thought it interesting that the people of Chihuahua revered the company when they came back, throwing parties and dinners for them. Then the company went ahead and stayed there for weeks until the town almost dried up and left. A quote on page 172 best shows this, "When they rode out three days later the streets stood empty, not even a dog followed them to the gates." Reading this part brought me back to the simile back a few chapters about the traders who go from town to town looking for gold like a disease. This simile suits the company perfectly here.

I liked how the traders just gave the gear to the company on credit, knowing they received tons of cash. I know these people view the company as heroes, but seriously? The Toledo swords that were talked about seemed pretty cool. From what I looked up, Toledo swords were just swords made in the city of Toledo, Spain. Toledo was a great producer of swords from the 15th to the 18th century, so the sword would probably be a saber or a rapier.

I thought the quote on page 172 was interesting, "four hundred miles to the east where the wife and child that he would not see again." This is major foreshadowing about Glanton, and I don't know about anyone else, but it seems obvious. Especially since at the end of the chapter there was a price of 8,000 pesos on Glanton's head when they left Chihuahua. By the way, 8,000 pesos doesn't seem alot. I know it probably seems that way during this time, but now it probably wouldn't even buy someone a loaf of bread.

When the company attacked the peaceful Tiguas, I thought it was interesting that Toadvine wasn't thrilled about it. It spoke to this character when he said that they weren't bothering anybody. When McCarthy mentioned the golden teeth hanging by his chest, was he referring to the teeth that was in that prison guard a few chapters back? When I read that, I instantly thought that. I don't know if it said he got them at that chapter, I just knew he was talking about it. After the massacre, this simile on page 174 was interesting to me, "the dead lay with their peeled skulls like polyps bluely wet." I looked up polyp to be sure what it was, because in Bio it was a type of invertebrate, but when I looked it up it also said it was an abnormal growth of tissue. I assume its used as the invertebrate in this sense. Here's a picture of what these polyps look like.

I thought the fight in the bar during the funeral procession was pretty epic. The funny thing about it was, that the company didn't actually start it. And to think, 36 Mexicans could have avoided their fate if that one guy didn't stab Grimley. It was pretty epic that Judge's only reaction to seeing him knifed was to just point the gun at the guy's face and fire, seemingly in one motion. I thought it was funny when after the company killed everyone, they just "looked at each other and at the bodies in a sort of wonder" (page 180). It made me think of when you break a window with a baseball or use the blender and make a mess, all you'd do is just look at each other until someone does something. It brought up that childish feel again, but this time towards the whole company, and Glanton was the adult giving instructions. I didn't understand the quote on 180, "Hair, boys, he said. The string aint run on this trade yet." Is Glanton saying that there's more fighting to be going on? Or is he saying that if they don't move they will get arrested or killed?

After this they went and massacred random settlements of Mexicans. It seemed that here, Glanton went a little crazy, just killing them as soon as he sees them. I just thought that here's a guy that's supposed to be all calm and collected, and he's just freaking out and killing anything that moves.

What I thought was really interesting was when the Mexican soldiers with lances came about the company and they had a fight that when described, reminded me of a rumble of Greasers and Socs, but toned way way up. I liked the line on page 182, "Glanton shot him through the head and shoved him from his horse with his foot and shot down in succession three men behind him." When I read this, it seemed that Glanton did all this in one motion. Classic western move.

A few lines I didn't understand:

page 184, "the naked bodies with their wounds like the victims of surgical experimentation." I can't help to say this, but this makes me think McCarthy is comparing these indians to the holocaust victims of Mengele. Especially when they just dug a pit and thew these bodies in, makes it seem like a Mengele thing to do. If that's the case, are these Americans portrayed as being Nazi-like to the indians? They're basically exterminating them. Or am I thinking about this too much?

Page 173, "as if such destinies were prefigured in the very rock for those with eyes to read."