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Situational Irony
Style
Explanation and Analysis:
McCarthy's writing style is unconventional, with prose that is simultaneously sparse yet expansive. McCarthy makes use of a seemingly objective, omniscient third person perspective. The third person perspective contributes to the realism of the novel, with his descriptions of characters and their actions as matter-of-fact as his descriptions of landscapes.
Notably, McCarthy uses very few punctuation marks outside of periods: the combination of few commas, colons, and semicolons with sentences of varying length enables McCarthy to, at various points, overwhelm the reader with run-on sentences joined almost entirely by conjunctions, while at other points making use of short, blunt sentences that shock the reader with their brevity. His prose is often compared to Faulkner or Melville because of the detailed and involved diction.
Blood Meridian has been compared to epic poems such as The Iliad due to the poetic sensibility that infects his prose. The subject matter of the novel begets the comparison, too, with the kid's pilgrimage being a literal odyssey, or journey, and religious throughlines at the forefront thematically. The specific focus of the novel—sometimes brutal violence and gore, sometimes sublime, pictorial landscapes—is often highlighted by McCarthy's soaring style, which elevates certain descriptions while provocatively dwelling on others.
Related Themes:
