Previous
Allegory
Definition of Alliteration
Alliteration is a figure of speech in which the same sound repeats in a group of words, such as the “b” sound in: “Bob brought the box of bricks to... read full definition
Alliteration is a figure of speech in which the same sound repeats in a group of words, such as the “b” sound in: “Bob brought... read full definition
Alliteration is a figure of speech in which the same sound repeats in a group of words, such as the... read full definition
Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—S and L Alliteration:
Chapter 11 begins with an alliteration of "s" and "l" sounds as McCarthy describes an ascent up a wooded landscape:
The shoeless mules slaloming through the dry grass and pine needles. In the blue coulees on the north slopes narrow tailings of old snow. They rode up switchbacks through a lonely aspen wood where the fallen leaves lay like golden disclets in the damp black trail.
The repeated "s" sounds mimic the back and forth of switchbacks in the snow, an equally repetitive motion of winding one's way up the mountains that visually matches the letter "s." In onomatopoeic fashion, the "s" sound sonically matches the shuffling of leaves and pine needles on the ground that is being described in the quotation. The alliteration then helps convey the imagery of the scene to the reader, highlighting the sounds of the scene described by McCarthy.
The "l" in "leaves" and "laying" emphasizes, once more, the natural world McCarthy outlines for the reader, as well as the fact that the ground is littered with dead leaves. "Disclet" is either a word coined by McCarthy, as it seems to only appear in his novels, or else is simply archaic. We can imagine the definition of such a word—a small, disc-like object—but this word makes the natural world somewhat foreign to the reader, who is likely unfamiliar with the word. "Disclet" also combines the "s" and "l" sounds into a simile describing the leaves, sonically uniting the two sounds that dominate the quotation into one description of the natural world.
Chapter 12
Explanation and Analysis—Massacre :
Chapter 12 includes a moment where McCarthy, describing a brutal and violent massacre of the Gileños, paints a vivid picture:
There were in the camp a number of Mexican slaves and these ran forth calling out in spanish and were brained or shot and one of the Delawares emerged from the smoke with a naked infant dangling in each hand and squatted at a ring of midden stones and swung them by the heels each in turn and bashed their heads against the stones so that the brains burst forth through the fontanel in a bloody spew and humans on fire came shrieking forth like berserkers and the riders hacked them down with their enormous knives and a young woman ran up and embraced the bloodied forefeet of Glanton’s warhorse.
To include all of the violent imagery from Blood Meridian would be unpleasant, as well as lengthy, but the quotation above is a particularly effective example of McCarthy's detailed imagery. He insists on describing the violence in detail: what is seen, heard, and felt by both the perpetrators and the victims. The alliteration of "brains burst forth [...] bloody spew" is almost onomatopoeic, sonically puncturing the long sentence with the consonance that is the same sound as a gun, or a loud bashing. To bash in the heads of two infants simultaneously is one of the most viscerally unpleasant images one could conjure, and yet McCarthy dwells on the moment.
The fact that McCarthy is equally painstaking in his imagery of the brutal killings as he is with the natural world juxtaposes the two against one another, putting beauty next to suffering and almost suggesting that violence is somewhat natural. At the same time, McCarthy paints such a clear and visceral image of gore and violence that the reader cannot help but condemn the characters who commit these acts. Thus McCarthy shocks the reader with an exhaustingly long sentence full of content that is deeply unpleasant to read, emphasized by imagery and alliteration.
Related Themes:
Chapter 15
Explanation and Analysis—Burning Bush :
After the kid refrains from killing an injured Shelby as Glanton had ordered him to do, he is separated from Tate as members of General Elias's army attempt to shoot them. With no horse, supplies, or allies, the kid stumbles across a lone tree burning in the desert, an allusion to the burning bush of the Bible:
It was a lone tree burning on the desert. A heraldic tree that the passing storm had left afire. The solitary pilgrim drawn up before it had traveled far to be here and he knelt in the hot sand and held his numbed hands out while all about in that circle attended companies of lesser auxiliaries routed forth into the inordinate day, small owls that crouched silently and stood from foot to foot and tarantulas and solpugas and vinegarroons and the vicious mygale spiders and beaded lizards with mouths black as a chowdog’s, deadly to man, and the little desert basilisks that jet blood from their eyes and the small sandvipers like seemly gods, silent and the same, in Jedda, in Babylon.
The burning tree is an allusion to the burning bush from Chapter 3 in the Book of Exodus. The description of the tree as "heraldic" as well as the simile comparing the sandvipers to "seemly gods [...] in Babylon" further evidences this quotation as an allusion to the Bible. The fact that this allusion takes place after the kid performs an act of mercy, which is rare in Blood Meridian, makes this allusion to the Bible particularly significant.
The burning bush is unifying, as the deadly forces of the desert—the kid as well as the sandvipers, tarantulas, mygales, and vinegarroons—come together, drawn by the warmth of nature. "Small sandvipers like seemly gods" is both an instance of alliteration and simile, with "s" sounds that sonically mimic the sound of a hissing snake. Although the snakes are "silent," the reader is still exposed to the sound of snakes through McCarthy's diction. The warmth of the burning tree is in many ways an act of mercy from God directed at the deadly creatures being snowed on in the desert. Even vicious animals like the kid require mercy, just as Shelby required mercy from the kid. In fact, the kid's pilgrimage is full of unlikely moments where, in his most desperate state, the world provides for him in a way that is almost divine, and the burning bush allusion highlights this facet of his journey while rewarding one of his most mercy-ladened moments.
Related Themes:
