The kid (''Blood Meridian'')

The kid is a nameless central character in the 1985 historical novel Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy. The first sentence of the novel opens with "see the child", which tells the reader the significance of this character. These words also serve to advise the reader of the dissimilar nature of the kid in relation to the novel's antagonist, Judge Holden, and the members of John Joel Glanton's gang. When viewing the novel as a bildungsroman, the story follows the maturation of the kid who had developed distinct values just before the end of the book.[1][2]

He is the focal point for the first six chapters, where he leaves Tennessee, rides with the filibusters, and is jailed in Chihuahua City. There he meets Toadvine for the second time, eyes Holden for the second time, and joins Glanton's gang. However, in chapters seven through nineteen the focus is no longer exclusively on the kid. In this section of the book he disappears from the action and then reappears. The final chapters again focus on the kid.[3]

Unlike Holden, the kid's physical description is sparse and bereft of details. All that is known is that he is "pale and thin", but he does have "big wrists, and big hands". In contrast to his outwardly violent lifestyle, his eyes are "oddly innocent". The kid's interior life is not explicitly expressed throughout the novel, and when he speaks it is very brief.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Bloom, Harold (2001). Introduction for "Blood Meridian". New York: Modern Library Edition. pp. v–xii.
  2. 1 2 Clement, William Dean (2009). "The Last of the True:" The Kid's Place In Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian (PDF) (Graduate). Missoula, Montana: University of Montana. Retrieved August 4, 2012.
  3. ↑ Schopen, Bernard A. (Summer 1995). "'They Rode On': Blood Meridian and the Art of Narrative". Western American Literature. Reno, Nevada: University of Nevada, Reno. 30 (2): 179–19. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
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