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{{
{{Infobox book
{{quote| ''This is my claim, he said. And yet everywhere upon it are pockets of autonomous life. Autonomous. In order for it to be mine nothing must be permitted to occur upon it save by my dispensation.''}}▼
| title = Blood Meridian
| original title = Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West
| author = Cormac McCarthy
| central theme =
| elevator pitch =
| genre = [[Historical fiction]], [[The Western]]
| publication date = April 1985
| source page exists =
| wiki URL =
| wiki name =
}}
▲{{quote|
▲{{quote| ''I dont see what that has to do with catchin birds.''}}
▲{{quote| ''The freedom of birds is an insult to me. Id have them all in zoos.''}}
▲[[File:tumblr_kxeatsrklJ1qar88i_4404.jpg|frame]]
▲{{quote box|[[Covers Always Lie|It's not about plants.]]}}
▲Also known as ''Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West''. It is a 1985 novel, the masterpiece of [[Cormac McCarthy]]. An extremely dark and esoteric novel, it's a total deconstruction of the [[Wild West]] and [[Injun Country]], and its main theme, such as it is, could be reasonably argued to be the darkness and ugliness at the heart of the [[American Dream]]. It was controversial when it came out because of its relentless scenes of amoral violence. It was named by literary critic Harold Bloom as the greatest American novel by a living author.
The novel follows a teenage runaway, only known as the kid, who by coincidence stumbles into the company of the Glanton Gang. This troupe of historical scalp-hunters and later outlaws are employed by the Mexican government at Chihuahua to exterminate the native tribes waging war against the settlements of the surrounding countryside. Needless to say, it's not positive reading.
----
{{tropelist}}
* [[Affably Evil]]: Judge Holden is often an eloquent gentleman, who takes off his hat for ladies and whores alike.
** Toadvine and Tobin are also sympathetic for being scalp-hunters, and sometimes act as father figures to the Kid.
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* [[Evil Albino]]: Judge Holden.
** Although, of course, not really albino, he fits the trope given that he's paler than anyone living in the Mexican desert has any right to be, and when he loses his hat he's variously described as burning and peeling skin.
* [[
* [[Foe Yay]]: Between the Kid and Judge Holden. It's established fairly early in the book that Holden is a paedophilic rapist, which explains his interest in the Kid and {{spoiler|what happens in the ending}}.
* [[Gainax Ending]]
* [[Gorn]]: Most of the book consists of the Kid's travels through the deserts and prairies, intercut with sickening scenes of violence.
* [[Heroic Sociopath]]: The Kid, who is our protagonist. And by 'heroic', all that's meant is he doesn't positively derive pleasure from being evil.
* [[Historical Fiction]]: [
** As was Judge Holden, scarily enough. He gets the [[Historical Villain Upgrade]] in this book.
*** Dear God let's hope it was [[Historical Villain Upgrade]].
*** [https://web.archive.org/web/20030404201628/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HNS/Scalpin/heads.html Only barely.]
* [[Humans Are
* [[Humanoid Abomination]]: It's difficult to walk away from the novel without suspecting the Judge to be this.
* [[Infant Immortality]]: Horrifically averted, most memorably with the tree of dead babies. In one scene Judge Holden takes a small Indian boy captive after a raid on a village. He keeps the boy with him for the night, then murders and scalps him the next morning, just after he is seen "dandling him on his knee."
** There's also the chapter where one of the scalphunters {{spoiler|grabs two babies by the ankles and swings them against a rock, spilling their brains on the ground.}}
* [[Karma Houdini]]: Somewhat debatable. In a book which describes [[Gorn|the slaughter of so many people in such detail]], the {{spoiler|Kid's "death" is notably absent.}} Also, since the book is a [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|ton of symbolism wrapped in three hundred pages]], {{spoiler|the Judge dancing at the end naked is somewhat suspect.}} Still, a majority of readers come off thinking {{spoiler|the Judge killed the Kid in the outhouse}}, so the trope holds.
* [[Kill
* [[Left Hanging]]: Most readers come out {{spoiler|saying the Judge raped and murdered the Kid in the outhouse.}} See [[Karma Houdini]] above.
* [[The Man Behind the Man]]: The never-seen Mr. Riddle is initially this to the Glanton Gang, which he has unleashed upon the natives of the Texas-Mexico borderlands. However, Judge Holden also fits this trope.
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* [[Ubermensch]]
* [[Viewers Are Geniuses]]: If you get the many references, it's [[Rule of Symbolism]] instead of [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]].
▲* [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]]: One reviewer of the book mentioned how, on almost every page, McCarthy has made a reference to something, including Antinomial Christianity, Gnosticism, and [[Spaghetti Western|Spaghetti Westerns]].
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