Blood Meridian Chapter 20

UPDATE ON THE BLOOD MERIDIAN MOVIE!!!!!
IT IS CURRENTLY IN PROGRESS AND IS SCHEDULED FOR 2011!! (no specific date)
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Now for some blog...

I loved this chapter! It was very interesting and definately fufilled the saying, "Love your enemies but keep your gun oiled."

Toadvine and the kid finally get to become their own little group again. It turns out, they're best of friends and will protect each other until the end. I agree with Ollie's statement about Toadvine being a father figure.

The kid's arrow wound is directly a link to Brown's similar injury. Instead of being treatable though, the kid has to endure long periods of agony with an arrow imbedded against his thigh bone. The future doesn't seem too bright for the kid. It turns out that the kid is the best shooter of the group. The expreist says, "Aye, you're a cool one. But it's cunning work all the same and wouldnt it take the heart out of ye (McCarthy 280)." I think this means that the kid is actually able to pick where to place the bullet, giving him the ability to inflict the most agony upon his foes; as apposed to his friends that shoot just to hit the enemy. Because the kid is a dead-eye, he gets to choose how much he makes a person suffer, which could be emotionally disturbing while necessary in combat at the same time.

The Judge's appearance is very mystic. All of a sudden, the Judge and the imbicile come out of the abyss promising trade. A great simile is on page 282, on which McCarthy writes, "Like things so charged with meaning that their forms are dimmed." Again this adds to the power and knowledge of the Judge and his new companion. Still not really sure why the Judge chose to keep the idiot. He may use it later as a sort of lure, but I'm not entirely sure. Another good simile is on the same page. "...very extremes of exile like some scurrilous king stripped of his vestiture and driven together with his fool into the wilderness to die." The only simile-like thing in this sentence is the part describing the Judge to a king. The rest about the fool, wilderness, and exile are all true. This similarity seperated by a difference emphasizes the actual simile that is intended.

scurrilous- grossly or obscenely abusive (dictionary.com)

The Judge has a weakness: the sun. It seems that only now, in his entirely nude form, the sun starts to take an effect on him. On page 284, the Judge says, "Yonder sun is like the eye of God (notice the capitalization) and we will cook impartially..." Again, maybe the sun is God's weapon against the Judge, since he is the devil.

The entire book can be summarized in one line Toadvine says. "You wouldnt think that a man would run plumb out of country out here, would ye (McCarthy 285)?'' Ever since the beginning, the Americans have been running out of places to go. Even their own brotheren (the Judge) wants them dead. This is McCarthy's way of saying that, pretty soon, everything you have done will catch up with you. Wether the outcome is good or bad depends on what you have done up to the point of your day of judgement.

The Judge has finally completely snapped. He kills everyone now, even if they were once part of his group of brothers or students. They used to look up to the Judge, but now they must run from him. They cannot have any hope of escaping for they have complete and total respect for the Judge. They fear him so therefore they adore him which will lead to their ultimate demise.

Neolithic (page 288) refers to the last part of the stone age.

I've never noticed this before, but McCarthy refuses to use hyphens. When he spells cul-de-sac, he spells it culdesac. It took me forever to understand what he meant. This deletion of hyphens from the languange of the book really adds to the whole era thing and the use of McCarthy's combination of words thing. Basically you can be a great writer by not using hyphens.