Blood Meridian's God of Violence

Exploring the Anti-Christ Figure at the Heart of the American Frontier

Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, features a villain so sinister that critics compare him to Satan himself.

This novel takes place in the Wild West of 19th Century America, following a gang of scalpers who maim and murder for profit. It’s a novel without a plot, showcasing the horrors of an amoral world beyond the reach of civilization, yet McCarthy did not pen this story gratuitously — this novel is far from a glorification of violence:

This story is a portrayal of a mad man’s war on the cosmic moral order of reality itself. It follows a villain who recognizes no god but war, and whose sole aim is a Hell on Earth as terrifying as the Biblical apocalypse.

Today we’ll analyze this villain to understand the roots of his depravity, and to discover the only authentic light that stands strong against the bloody evils of amoral life in the American Wild West.

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Survival of the Fittest

Blood Meridian follows “the kid,” a nameless protagonist who runs away from home. He nearly perishes in his travels, joining a scalping gang out of survivalism. The gang, run by Glanton, are contracted by the government to hunt down Apaches — natives who are massacring innocent civilians by the thousands. Predictably, Glanton’s gang are no heroes themselves.

Glanton’s gang are mercenaries who murder and maim for profit and pleasure. With few exceptions, they are largely base and simplistic criminals.

One man, however, stands out from the rest. He revels in the same destructive evils as his companions, but he’s chillingly charismatic. The man somehow stands above the depravity of his companions, yet simultaneously, is wretched than the rest of them combined.

His name is Judge Holden.

In addition to his tendencies to murder, The Judge is also well versed in philosophy, history, law, language, diplomacy, science, etc. He’s a gifted rhetorician who charms villains and deceives the innocent, and his credo is simple — war is his God.

In his own words:

“War is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one’s will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing unity of existence. War is god.”

The heart of Holden is Darwinian. Life is survival of the fittest, and the strong have a moral right to consume the weak… yet this brutality is not that of a simplistic criminal. From the very moment we discover the Judge, we recognize something much darker is at play.

Anti-Christ of the Desert

The Judge’s origins are unknown.

Glanton’s gang first finds him alone in the desert, perched on a rock, while they flee from Comanche Indians. Chillingly, the Judge takes Glanton to the side and whispers a secret pact to the leader. We don’t know what is said, but Glanton gladly accepts the Judge into his party.

Already, this introduction is rife with Biblical imagery:

For one, Holden is sitting alone in the desert. This is an allusion to Christ in the Desert, fasting for 40 days before he begins his ministry. The Judge is, of course, a twisted inversion of this imagery, and therefore an anti-Christ figure.

Where Christ is the “Word made flesh,” or the Logos, the Judge is an anti-logos. Christ is that which created the world, the Judge is that which destroys the world. The Judge doesn’t scalp for worldly gain, but spiritual dominance. He sees every murder, every crime, as an act of war against a non-existent moral order, and a further triumph in his philosophy that only violence reigns supreme.

This leads to a terrifying implication:

The Judge’s atrocities — his murders, scalping, potential raping, etc. — are just the surface of his evil. The implication is he’s ruled by a philosophy whose evils dig far deeper than inflicting worldly suffering on his fellow man.

Overlord of Creation

Throughout the novel, the Judge hints about his true agenda via long-winded monologues to his fellow scalpers.

His speeches are esoteric, often hiding his true intentions, but we get a clear glimpse into his agenda through a discussion with fellow gang member Toadvine:

“‘Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent,’ the Judge said.

He looked about at the dark forest in which they were bivouacked. He nodded toward the specimens he’d collected.

‘These anonymous creatures may seem little or nothing in the world. Yet the smallest crumb can devour us. Any smallest thing beneath yon rock out of men’s knowing. Only nature can enslave man and only when the existence of each last entity is routed out and made to stand naked before him will he be properly suzerain of the Earth.’

‘What’s a Suzerain?’ Toadvine asked

‘A suzerain is a special kind of keeper,’ the Judge said, ‘He rules even where there are other rulers. His authority countermands all… And this is my claim. Everywhere on Earth are pockets of autonomous life. Autonomous. In order for it to be mine nothing must be permitted to occur save by my dispensation.’”

Like all great villains, the Judge has a god-complex. He desires to be the Suzerain of the world. Yet there’s something even more sinister to the Judge. He doesn’t desire to be God in the name of pleasure, gain, or autonomy alone. He desires to be God for one reason — to inflict everlasting slavery and suffering upon creation. In his own words “nothing must be permitted,” without his consent. In other words, he desires to create an everlasting Hell on Earth, and be the overseer of such an Inferno.

One can’t notice an allusion to poet John Milton’s Satan, who proclaimed it was “better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.”

The Judge himself proclaims that he’ll “never sleep… never die,” because his agenda — the worship of violence — is an eternal, inescapable fact of reality… and throughout the novel, he mostly succeeds.

The only question then, is who can stand up to the Judge? To fight him with violence alone is to ensure his triumph — his celebration of violence… so where, if anywhere, can goodness, justice, or virtue stand in rebellion?

Conclusion

The novel’s only hope lies in its nameless protagonist, the Kid.

He’s no hero, and has far more evil than good in him, but there’s one claim to glory that he carries — he resists the Judge.

The Judge takes special interest in the Kid from the moment he lays eyes on him. He recognizes the Kid has a twinge of conscience in him, and desires to make the boy his disciple. It would be a spiritual triumph — corrupting the boy and affirming that violence conquers all, including goodness… Yet the Kid rejects the Judge.

This rejection is the sole moment in the entire story where the Judge expresses dissatisfaction:

“You’ve disappointed me” he later yells, attempting to kill the Kid.

The Judge may mostly succeed in the story, but his fatal flaw is that he operates on an incomplete picture. The Kid’s resistance is an immortal blight in his philosophy, for it stands testimony that man is more than primal rage and Darwinian survival; he has embedded in him a capacity for goodness, however bleak, and a disgust for hatred.

Blood Meridian then is not meant to impress upon you the triumph of violence, but the futility of evil. The Judge’s “triumphs,” of violence, in full summation, are nothing but the absurd vanities of a delusional mad man.

McCarthy doesn’t moralize — he doesn’t provide a concrete answer to evil — but he evokes a wisdom via the Judge’s insanity. To reject The Judge, to despise evil with mind, body, soul, is the beginning of one’s return to the straight and narrow, a decision that must precede a life well-lived.

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