Filipa Basílio Valente da Silva 2º Ciclo de Estudos em Estudos Anglo-Americanos, variante ...

102 Pages·2014·1.01 MB·English

FACULDADE DE LETRAS
UNIVERSIDADE DO PORTO

Filipa Basílio Valente da Silva

2º Ciclo de Estudos em Estudos Anglo-Americanos, variante Literatura e
Cultura

Deconstructing a journey full of boundaries: History of Man in Cormac
McCarthy’s Blood Meridian and The Crossing

2014

Orientador: Professor Doutor Carlos Azevedo

Classificação: 17
Ciclo de estudos: Estudos Anglo-Americanos
Dissertação

Versão definitiva
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I dedicate this dissertation to all Cormac McCarthy's fans, who are transported to
another dimension and feel inspired, moved, intrigued and amazed every time they open
one of his books.

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Acknowledgments

Everything has its own source and is always determined by certain influential aspects.
Although this dissertation’s ideas and structures came from my own mind, I could have
never written it the way I did if it weren’t for some special people, who inspired me and
contributed to my perspective in their own unique way. Therefore I would like to thank:

Professor Carlos Azevedo for his support, concern and dedication, and whose classes
inspired me, since the beginning, to try to understand the wonderful powers of
literature;

Professor Jaime Costa for his exhilarating comments, and productive, helpful
suggestions, which I will keep in my mind every time I write a paper;

My mother Elvira, my father Álvaro and my sister Sofia, who, very patiently, are
always ready to listen to my presentations and to contribute with different perspectives;

My grandmother Marcelina who raised me in a Garden of Eden and gave me the best
childhood memories that anyone could have;
My grandmother Francisca for her life-changing and inspiring advices, and for her
wonderful way of facing life;

Last but not least, my boyfriend Miguel, who, apart from bringing joy and euphoria to
my life, also teaches me every day how to look at things from a different angle,
carefully listens to my ideas and never stops reminding me that we should always set
our standards higher.

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Abstract
Keywords: Cormac McCarthy; Blood Meridian; The Crossing; Journey; History
of Man; Landscape; Narrator; Dissenters; West; United States of America.
Is history just simply what we read in books and what we take for granted?
Literature has been through many changes over the years, but if there is one thing that
we can't deny, is its power to preserve culture and critical judgment—all in all, our
heritage. Literature is, therefore, the memory of Man. Whether people hate or love
Cormac McCarthy's novels, they are unmistakably bold and unique, having countless
cultural and historical roots, and approaching timeless and controversial issues. I argue
that Blood Meridian and The Crossing, his most complex and insightful works up to
date, aren't neither empty of meaning nor negative novels. The purpose of this
dissertation is to gather information by examining the character's journeys, their
interaction with the Other (such as people, animals and landscape) and the narrator's
role, which, conjoined, will lead to a fruitful overview of mankind's history in these
two novels.
Resumo
Palavras-chave: Cormac McCarthy; Blood Meridian; The Crossing; Viagem;
História do Homem; Paisagem; Narrador; Rebeldes; Oeste; Estados Unidos da América.
Será que a história é simplesmente aquilo que lemos nos livros e tomamos por
garantido? A literatura tem sofrido muitas mudanças ao longo dos anos, mas se há algo
que não podemos negar é o seu poder de preservar a cultura e o juízo crítico—em suma,
a nossa herança. A literatura é, então, a memória do Homem. As obras de Cormac
McCarthy podem ser detestadas ou adoradas, mas são também claramente arrojadas e
únicas, possuindo inúmeras raízes históricas e culturais, e abordando problemáticas
intemporais e controversas. A meu ver, Blood Meridian e The Crossing, as obras mais
complexas e profundas de McCarthy, não são nem vagas, nem negativas, e têm um
significado próprio. O objectivo desta dissertação é recolher informações, analisando as
jornadas das personagens, as suas interacções com o Outro (que podem ser pessoas,
paisagens ou animais) e o papel do narrador, que combinadas irão resultar numa
perspectiva produtiva sobre a história da humanidade nestas duas obras.

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Table of contents

INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 7
The journey in American literature: the origins ........................................................................ 7
The journey in Cormac McCarthy’s oeuvre ............................................................................ 11
Concepts of journey in Blood Meridian and The Crossing ..................................................... 13
CHAPTER ONE ......................................................................................................................... 18
Three innocent dissenters ............................................................................................................ 18
1. The kid: the silent one ..................................................................................................... 19
1.1 Judge Holden: an epitome of Man’s arrogance ............................................................. 29
1.2 “You think I’m afraid of him?”- why the kid didn’t kill the judge ............................... 32
1.3 The judge’s victory and the kid’s shocking demise ...................................................... 33
2. Billy: the pastoral one ..................................................................................................... 36
2.1 Idyllic moments: the shewolf ........................................................................................ 36
2.2 Maturity and confession ................................................................................................ 47
2.3 The end - despair and alienation.................................................................................... 49
3. Boyd: the popular and legendary one .............................................................................. 52
3.1 Profile of a hero ............................................................................................................. 54
3.2 The corrido, truth and tale: history of Man ................................................................... 56
CHAPTER TWO ........................................................................................................................ 61
Blood Meridian vs. The Crossing: control over landscape ..................................................... 61
CHAPTER THREE ..................................................................................................................... 75
Life and fiction: from author to narrator and reader ............................................................... 75
1.1 The author ............................................................................................................... 75
1.2 The writing .................................................................................................................... 76
2. The narrator ..................................................................................................................... 76
2.1 Adverbs, adjectives, expressions –the intensifiers ........................................................ 77
2.2 Comparative and hypothetical expressions ................................................................... 84
2.3 Personal remarks ........................................................................................................... 88
3. The reader ........................................................................................................................ 93
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 95
Works cited ................................................................................................................................. 99

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Life's pretty damn good.
—Cormac McCarthy (2007)

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INTRODUCTION
The journey in American literature: the origins

In order to discuss the theme of the journey in McCarthy’s oeuvre one needs to
understand how this topic came into being and became so central in the American
experience. What was its foundation? Which events marked it in American culture?
Lastly, how did this theme spread throughout History and what were the consequences?
There is a need, thus, to go back not just to the origins of American literature, but of
America itself.
There are three main historical events, more specifically movements, which
introduced the centrality of the journey in the USA. The discovery of the American
continent, by Christopher Columbus in 1492, was a result of a journey by ship.
Secondly, the movement of Europeans towards the New Continent was encouraged by
the hope of starting again, searching for a new life in a new place without boundaries or
restraints. In the image of America these Europeans, known as Puritans, saw a virgin
land which would receive them with unlimited new opportunities. This whole vision
was later analyzed by experts on American culture and history, who then considered it
utopian, a dream of a good or better place1. It was in this virgin land that the Puritans
would regenerate themselves and achieve salvation. Lastly, the journey is strictly
connected to the American myth, that of an unlimited geographic frontier.
This notion of the frontier was eloquently theorized by Frederick Jackson
Turner, who demonstrated why this was uniquely an American conception. The
westward expansion was distinct due to its far-away distance from the coast, where the
first settlements were established, and to its later development: “…the frontier promoted
the formation of a composite nationality for the American people. The coast was
preponderantly English, but the later tides of continental immigration flowed across to
the free lands” (Turner 1996: 22). Therefore, there was a stronger American identity
being established in the free lands of the west. Plus, this physical movement towards the

1 The word utopia is formed by the word topos, which means place, and by two prefixes: ou, which refers
to non-existence, and eu, that means good. Joining these two meanings, utopia came to mean “a good
place that doesn’t exist”.
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west, to the interior of the Continent, meant a “steady movement away from the
influence of Europe, a steady growth of independence on American lines” (Turner
1996: 4). Not only were Americans becoming more distant from the English
settlements, they were also further from Europe as a continent. Besides, the way of
living in the frontier developed singular features of its own: “… to the frontier the
American intellect owes its striking characteristics. … that dominant individualism,
working for good and for evil, and withal that buoyancy and exuberance which comes
with freedom - these are traits of the frontier, or traits called out elsewhere because of
the existence of the frontier.”(Turner 1996: 37) In brief, frontier life created a new
space, with different people, customs and beliefs, but most importantly, an exclusively
American community. However, the physical place for expansion and exploration
eventually ran out. It is at this point that the most important idea behind all this is
revealed: movement. According to Turner, “[m]ovement has been its [American life’s]
dominant fact, and, unless this training has no effect upon a people, the American
energy will continually demand a wider field for its exercise. But never again will such
gifts of free land offer themselves.” (Turner 1996: 37) On the whole, Americans will
always be on the pursuit of something more, something that goes beyond the simple

idea of exploring physical land. This is their constant desire and dream.
The discovery of the American continent was a striking event in History, but the
journey as a central American issue was above all a consequence of the European
travels towards America. This craving for a place to start anew led to the creation of
mythic conceptions of America, such as The Garden of Eden, the Eldorado, or the
Promised Land, and later the concept of the Frontier and the Myth of the West. The
creation of myths is a result of Man’s desires and dreams, hopes and projections. It is
possible to argue, then, that myth and journey condition each other; the myths are built
because of a movement or quest, and a quest is made in order to use these myths and
turn them into reality. Connected to the physical journey is the quest of the Self and the
inner-realization or discovery. Puritans lived a life of isolation and their culture was
mainly interior. The concern with salvation transformed them in powerful cultivators of
individualism, and from this, solitude and otherness would outflow (Avelar 2008: 15-
16, my translation). To travel or to make a journey means to move from one place to
another or from one familiar place to a whole different one. Journeys can either be
denotative, meaning only a movement through space and time; or they can be
connotative—to overcome the notion of movement, to depart and to arrive, in order to
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include an interior journey of growing and learning. This implies that the initial Self
who sets off will be completely different from the one who arrives. Consequently, to
understand the act of travelling one needs to bear in mind the American conceptions of
place.
What did Puritans think of the American continent? What did they find most
attractive? First of all, it was the idea of a completely fresh and uncivilized place, which
is not supposed to be mistaken with the idea of wilderness as a good thing—something
cherished by the English Romantics, in opposition to the Victorian age. In fact, it was
the other way around; the idea of a new place to civilize and transform into one of their
own pleased the settlers. This was also due to their fear of the untamed and wild nature.
Furthermore, Leonard Lutwack noted that “[s]eizing and developing the land occupied
the hands of the settlers, but their minds were exercised by the renewal of individual,
family, and society in America.” (1984: 142) The process of civilization of this land
was important, but the real motive of their endeavor was the idea of a completely new
society, with new rules. They were trying to fulfill their utopian dream and to make
their mythic conceptions real.
Secondly, and still related to the notion of an uncivilized place, is the fact that an
unconquered and wild space offers no obstacles—at least not lawful ones—and the
settlers have nothing that can stop their moving through the land: “[t]he prime hero of
American literature is the man in motion, and he moves best through the wilderness
because is no stopping-place there…” (Lutwack 1984: 181) In brief, the theme of the
journey is deeply rooted in the American experience.
However, the high significance of the journey in the United States of America
does not lie only in its origin, but also through its History until the present: from the
discovery and (greedy) exploration of the west, to movements from farms to towns—as
industrialization intensified—to migrations towards the USA and movements inside its
own land. Moreover, the puritan way of life—individualist and interior—also
influenced the American attitude, namely as far as artists and writers are concerned.
Consequently, artists would write about fictional individuals who would travel to
different places, that would change them and their perspective. This would make the
journey metaphysical, psychological and interior. The literary perspective would turn
from the outer physical world to the inner world of the Self. Accordingly, writers could
create a whole new concept: the inner journey. Lutwack declared that “[i]t may be that
movement across seemingly unlimited space, more than attachment to place, expresses
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