BLOODY SKY
Extreme circumstances bring about substantial changes in people. At least that is what Paul Bowles and Cormac McCarthy seem to be saying in the writing of their respective books, The Sheltering Sky and Blood Meridian. Both authors place their characters in difficult locations, dealing with difficult people and expect them to emerge changed, for better or for worse. In The Sheltering Sky, Bowles takes his American trio and places them in the desert lands of the African continent where the wide, dry impossibly desolate terrain takes its toll on their minds and bodies. Likewise, McCarthy takes his ragged bunch of marauders, most prominently the Kid, and has them wandering the massive expanse of the untamed west. This convention of forced growth is constant throughout both books, and the reader gets the unique opportunity to observe those changes from an objective point of view. In The Sheltering Sky, we meet Port, Kit and Tunner initially as continental Americans on a sort of tour for spoiled expatriates. They seem oblivious to the fact that the area and the people who inhabit it are recently war-torn and decimated. The countryside has been ravaged by the war but the three of them seem to ignore that fact and continue thr
ough it in a sort of dazed, self indulged coma. The same, or a similar, situation is present in McCarthy's Blood Meridian, his characters, mainly the Kid, are making their way across the Old West, looking for money an adventure. They venture into Mexico, encountering peasant villagers, both hostile and peaceful, as well as numerous tribes of Native Americans. Both parties chance upon characters, both eccentric and dangerous, and all involved seem to get themselves into the most impossible situations imaginable. Apparently the point Bowles and McCarthy are trying to convey to the reader is that great change and substantial inner growth can only come about through intense emotional stress and physical challenge. The Kid in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness In The West goes through similar experiences of severe hardship throughout his journey in the West. Kid is thrust into numerous situations where he seemingly has no idea what exactly he is getting into, and most of the time he does it with a naive blind ambition. When he joins the Captain's party, Kid is unprepared for the excess of violence and depravity he encounters from both his own crew and the hostile Indians. After joining the Judge and Glanton, Kid experiences incredibly difficult situations for a boy his age, (fourteen years old) such as the time he spent in the snow covered mountains, losing his horse and having to walk a good portion of the way. Kid comes up against some truly incredible odds, surviving the most impossible traumas in cartoon charact
Some common words found in the essay are:
Port Tunner, Blood Meridian, Sheltering Sky, Fourth Class, Glanton Kid, Kid McCarthy's, Kit Tunner, Likewise McCarthy, West Kid, Tunner Port, sheltering sky, blood meridian, port tunner, trying convey, mccarthy's blood, mccarthy's blood meridian,
Approximate Word count = 1047
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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