Blood Meridian: Irony 3 key examples

The above claim that "every man is tabernacled in every other" in a complex intertwining of "being and witness" is a moment of dramatic irony, as the reader understands the Judge's quotation to be true insofar as all the characters in Blood Meridian are documented in the book itself. The actual assertion the Judge is making appears to be that the mind of every person houses those they have come into contact with, creating a web of witness and being that includes everyone in the world. Leaving aside this interesting mystical claim, it is also literally true of the world of the novel that all the characters are sketched down in a book, be it the Judge's book or McCarthy's. Once more, then, there is a meta-reference to books within McCarthy's novel.

Furthermore, despite being mocked by his comrades, Webster is clearly wise in desiring to not be documented in the Judge's ledger, given readers' knowledge of the Judge and what he is capable of. Indeed, the Judge often destroys that which he has sketched after he sketches it, from a piece of armor to a young child.

Regardless, the intertwined complexity of man that the Judge is commenting on takes on new significance when the connections are through sheer and utter violence, as is often the case in Blood Meridian.

"The mystery is that there is no mystery" is about as paradoxical a statement as they come, but one can make meaning of the claim nonetheless. While people crave tall tales, ambiguous stories, and riddles they can puzzle through, for the Judge the truth of the matter is that there is no secret to life, no mystery to be sorted out. However, the fact that the Judge, a man full of mystery—a man with a mysterious origin, abilities that none can explain, and who is somehow someone everyone has met before—claims there is no mystery to life is ironic. Moreover, the fact that the Judge explains this idea through a paradox is doubly ironic, because a paradox is the exact sort of riddle the Judge is claiming one craves but yet does not exist.

Furthermore, the judge is so frequently dishonest that he cannot be taken at face value, coloring all that he says, including this seemingly paradoxical statement. The novel oscillates from mystery to stark reality: from portraying the brutal truth of American imperialism to vague gesticulations at what it means to live in a world of sin. The claim "the mystery is that there is no mystery" is just one more moment of oscillation, a claim that is at once ambiguous and certain. 

Moreover, the fact that a devilish figure in the Judge claims there is no mystery, while the religious figure in the ex-priest claims there is mystery, is an amusing reversal of standard portrayals of faith, where religion involves certain belief in God while the irreligious lack this certain belief in God's existence.

The most the kid has ever talked about himself or his journey to another character occurs in the moment above, where he briefly recounts the story that is Blood Meridian to this dead Mexican woman. The fact that the kid mostly keeps to himself, and when he decides to share the most he ever has about his life to another person it was in fact to nobody but himself, creates a moment of situational irony.

In fact, the moment is doubly ironic because he is trying to save her life, which he almost never does for Mexican characters in the story –– recall that the kid has been explicitly and implicitly responsible for dozens, if not hundreds, of Mexicans' deaths. However, the old woman he tries to save was already dead. Once more, death permeates everything in the story.

This story is significant as it suggests the kid is beyond saving—he can no longer become a life-giver, only a merchant of death. However, it does show the kid's growth over the course of the novel, which is a coming-of-age story about the kid. The kid choosing to speak in Spanish similarly reveals this growth. Unfortunately, it is too late, both for this woman and the others he has murdered.