Analyis

"The violence of the book is tough to swallow not just because of the scenes it describes or the intimacy with which McCarthy describes them, but because it kills one of the true darlings of American history — the idea of the frontier, or the great myth of the American West. For most of American history, the West has beckoned as a place of opportunity, a place of rugged individualism, and a place, more or less, of democratic equality."

• I very much agree with this assessment. 

• I believe that the timing of Mccarthy writing "Blood Meridian" was essential for its impact. 

• Mccarthy's writing of such a realistically horrific western story was crucial in turning the narrative about the frontier. 

• It took some of the immense romanticism away from that time period and helped to increase Americans awareness of the brutality of the western front.