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Charlie Mahoney

Dr. Jay Ellis

Don’t Fence Me In

11/17/19

Prog II – 8

Finding the Categorical Imperative in Blood Meridian

In Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, the kid becomes surrounded by the theology of

judge Holden and his “God is War” mentality yet finds morality in a setting of extreme violence.

The members of the Glanton gang and Captain White’s crew of misfit soldiers fail over and over

again in showing any respect for humanity while the young sixteen-year-old breaks through the

dogma of nihilism that he surrounds himself in. Immanuel Kant’s moral theory bases itself in the

categorical imperative which divides itself into three separate formulas which dictate every

rationale agent’s moral seeking (Johnson and Cureton). The three parts to Kant’s theory; the

universal law and the law of nature, humanity as an end in itself, and autonomy and the realm of

ends. These formulas create human morality and enable rational agents to follow a moral code

which binds humanity together. The categorical imperative or an objective, rationally necessary,

unconditional principle that we must always follow despite our natural desires or inclinations we

have to the contrary (Johnson and Cureton). Kant’s theory directly contradicts judge Holden and

states that as self-directing agents, we have the ability step back from our natural desires,

contemplate how we should satisfy them and “be moved by them only on the basis of such

reflections” (Guyer 348). Although the kid succumbs to violence and witnesses barbaric acts, he

seeks morality and becomes uninfluenced by the manipulating philosophy of the judge.
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Although the kid joins Captain White’s crew of murderous ex-soldiers and shortly after

the scalpers of the Glanton gang, he really has no other choice. Captain White offers him land

and glory for defending the United States against their Mexican enemies citing patriotism and the

Monroe Doctrine as excuses for their actions. How would a young kid fully understand the

consequences of joining a gang? The Glanton gang reveals itself as the only way for Tobin and

the kid to get released from prison as well, an escape for freedom. The narrative of the novel fails

in explicitly demonstrate extreme acts of violence directly associated with the kid, but instead

gives light to moments of mercy and compassion for other human beings (Williams 324). In John

Sepich’s Notes on Blood Meridian he analyzes the historical significance of the Tarot card which

presents itself to the kid, ‘“The presence of this card in the novel as the kid’s emblem is an

appropriate validation of the judge’s otherwise inexplicable accusations of the kid’s, “clemency

for the heathen.” And the judge, when he can, exacts vengeance” (107), “McCarthy associates

his kid with the four of cups, a card perceived to represent dissatisfaction or an ambivalence, and

thereby supports Holden’s charge that the kid had withheld himself in part from the gang”’

(126). Arguing that the kid contemplates Kant’s categorical imperative in the novel creates

surmise, but the theory explains the origins of the kid’s morality. But the kid as a rational agent

discovers humanity while showing ambivalence to judge Holden and the Glanton gang.

The role of the kid in the narrative outlines the concept of the categorical imperative,

“His origins are become remote as is his destiny an not again in all the world’s turning will there

be terrain so wild and barbarous to try whether the stuff of creation may be shaped to man’s will

or whether his own heart is not another kind of clay” (5). In his essay Jordan Carson expands on

the concept related to “another kind of clay”, “The kid seems to be the perfect test case for the

postmodern condition; seemingly having no essence or foundation whatsoever, the kid’s life will
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demonstrate whether he is a completely blank slate to be inscribed by the interconnected Text, or

if he bears some essence common to all human beings after all” (26-27) . Just through the first

few pages of the novel, the reader can understand the kid as an innocent teenager who creates his

own fate in a world with no morality. His heart, ‘another kind of clay’ can shape his morality.

His heart can develop with experience despite the absence of a moral upbringing and the

knowledge of his future. After lighting the hotel on fire with Tobin, McCarthy still describes the

young man as a ‘baptismal candidate’ (29), an individual worthy of redemption, the meaning of

baptism (Williams 328). According to the three formulas of the categorical imperative, just like

any other agent, the kid has the capacity to find morality.

The first formula of Kant’s categorical imperative, The Universal Law of Nature creates a

sort of procedure for moral reasoning which separates into four steps. The first step: have a

maxim (a rationale truth of morality). Second, create the maxim which governs all rational

agents, causing the group to act as you yourself. Third, question if your beliefs would fit into the

law of nature. Fourth, ask yourself if you could rationally follow your maxim in terms of the law

of nature. If one can, then the action is moral (Rohlf ). Think about the role of judge Holden in

the novel, the leader of the gang who persuades any other man like himself to join his gang of

murderers because no moral law exists. Williams states, “For the judge, the kid lacks the

strength and courage to dance, to brutalize others without remorse” (329). The judge expresses

this to the kid, “I know too that you’ve not the heart of a common assassin… You alone were

mutinous. You alone reserved in your soul some corner of clemency for the heathen” (311-312).

Williams analyzes the moral dichotomy between the judge and the kid, “As nearly all the

judge’s comments to the kid following the Yuma Indians’ destruction of the Glanton gang

indicate, Holden has been deeply affected by the kid’s passive resistance throughout the
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narrative, revealing that his lofty oratory has been directed at him” (329). Throughout the novel

judge Holden has successfully used his skills in language and rhetoric by deceiting members in

the Glanton gang, convincing his men that violence stems from human nature.

Over the course of the novel the kid becomes the outlier in the ‘communal soul’ of the gang’s

barbarism. In terms of the first formula of the universal law of nature the kid understands the

nihilism of judge Holden cannot pass for universal.

Humanity as an end in itself challenges the theology of the Glanton Gang, “So act that

you use humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at

the same time as an end, never merely as a means” (Kant 80). More simply, “There are, in Kant’s

theory, two basic kinds of ends to be produced that the supreme principle of morality requires us

to set: our own perfection and the happiness of others” (Guyer 354). Because we must act in

accordance with others, we cannot treat people as a means to an end. We cannot murder, steal,

and rape because we must treat others as we would treat ourselves. Ronja Vieth, who portrays

the novel as an American gothic states, “The most striking incident, however, occurs after the kid

has arrived in California and has escaped a prison sentence by confessing all his deeds and being

baptized. His attempt to help an old woman in the mountains is coupled with his personal

confession to her” (60).

He spoke to her in a low voice. He told her that he was an American and that he

was a long way from the country of his birth and that he had no family and that he

had traveled much and seen many things and had been at war and endured

hardships. He told her he would convey her to a safe place, some party of her

countrypeople who would welcome her and that she should join them for he could

not leave her in this place or she would surely die. (328)
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The kid in this portion of the novel, after escaping the life of the Glanton gang demonstrates

moral redemption through helping what he perceives as an older woman in need. But he quickly

realizes, “She was just a dry shell and has been in that place for years” (328). Vieth reinforces

the gothic element in Blood Meridian, “The kid’s open resistance into complete evil persists

throughout the narrative, suggesting not only a Gothic duality within humans but also hope for

redemption” (60). Shortly after refusing the sentiments of the judge the kid, now referred to as

the man, encounters a “dark little dwarf of a whore” (345). According to Williams, “Unlike the

pedophiliac judge, who quite possibly is responsible for the disappearance of the young girl from

the dancing bear act searched for in the novel’s final moments, the kid is unable or unwilling to

exert his bodily power over the diminutive prostitute” (332). The kid believes in a humanity in

which we treat each other not as a means to an end but as other rational agents that deserve the

same respect as we desire.

The final formula in Kant’s categorical imperative bases itself in the sentiment of giving

oneself moral law rather than merely heeding the injunctions of others (Johnson and Cureton).

The formula of autonomy comes from a rational will within all of us that grants our morality

through individual thought. Because we all have the capacity in thinking for ourselves, we all

deserve respect. In Kant’s own words, “the Idea of the will of every rational being as a will that

legislates universal law” (Kant 82).  Kant’s moral philosophy symbolizes the role of the kid in

the novel, “Now, what serves the will as the objective ground of its self-determination is an end,

and this, if it is given by reason alone, must hold equally for all rational beings.” (Kant 78).Judge

Holden’s philosophy contradicts Kant’s perspective on autonomy, “Only nature can enslave man

and only when the existence of each last entity is routed out and made to stand naked before hum

will he be properly suzerain of the earth… This is my claim, he said. And yet everywhere upon it
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are pockets of autonomous life. Autonomous. In order for it to be mine nothing must be

permitted to occur upon it save my dispensation” (207). The judge acknowledges his failure in

molding the kid’s morality, “I spoke in the desert for you and you only and you turned a deaf ear

to me” (319). The judge hates autonomy while the kid embraces it.

Another example of autonomy comes from a scene in the desert, after the destruction of

the Glanton gang. The kid, amongst bones and carcasses of dead animals refuses murdering

judge Holden, the man who has sexual relations with children and who slaughters entire villages

because of his religion of war. The expriest correctly foreshadows his fate while the kid has the

opportunity shooting the judge, “You’ll get no second chance lad. Do it. He is naked. He is

unarmed. God’s blood, do you think you’ll best him any other way? Do it, lad. Do it for the love

of God. Do it or I swear your life is forfeit” (298). The kid fails in killing his enemy, a sign of

moral autonomy from the sentiments of the expriest and the judge.

In the final chapter of the novel as a 45-year-old the kid, now referred to as ‘the man’

encounters the judge in the town of Fort Griffin, “the biggest town for sin in all of Texas” (332).

When the judge invites the kid in joining the dance, “Even a dumb animal can dance” (345),

symbolizing a clear defiance to judge Holden’s theology after years and years of reflection on his

role in the Glanton Gang. His heart molded from ‘antic clay’ or his past experiences shows his

persistence against the philosophy of judge Holden. In an analysis of Gnostic Theology of Blood

Meridian author Petra Mundik argues, ‘“The judge knows that the kid never fully succumbed to

his will and, because he cannot allow autonomous life to exist save by his ‘dispensation’, he

must destroy the kid as he destroys the little birds whose freedom is such an ‘insult’ to him… So

just as the judge smiles when he catches the coin in his hand, he smiles as he gathers the kid, “in

his arms against his immense and terrible flesh”’ (84 Mundik). His walk into the jakes draws
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from the beginning of the novel whereas an immature teenager he fights Toadvine. In the same

setting of the jakes, the 16-year-old kid fought Toadvine over nothing. Now, as a 45-year-old

man he refuses dancing with the judge while accepting his fate. Jordan Carson agrees with this

concept, “One possibility is that the kid’s death is a sort of martyrdom which champions the

endeavor to construct an autonomous moral self, a meaningful life, through recourse to

narrative” (25). Joshua Masters analysis of the kid unknowingly alludes to the concept of

autonomy:

The kid, perhaps because he was not included in the “terrible covenant” that occurred

atop the volcano, is never part of the ‘communal soul’, of the scalp hunters, a soul over

which the judge presides as lawgiver and lawmaker. Because the kid has preserved a

capacity for judgement, mercy, and morality, he has preserved some portion of himself

outside the judge’s textual domain. (33-34)

The kid maintains autonomous from the theology of the judge and the ‘god is war’

mentality which successfully corrupts other members of the Glanton gang. The kid has died but

the significance of his death and his refusal to ‘dance’ with the judge symbolizes a hope any

moral agent possesses. “…. if morality is not a mere cobweb of the brain, then its supreme

principle is a categorical imperative, and such a principle can be comprehended, in its most

developed and universal form, as autonomy of the will” (Guyer 370).

The epilogue challenges conclusions about the novel’s absence of a moral message.

Mundik analyzes the final page of the novel:

The epilogue assures us that there is one lone figure powerful enough to stand up to the

forces of darkness. The judge may be immortal and terrible beyond imagining, but he

cannot stop the lone figure striking fire out of the rock, and as long as there are such
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“pockets of autonomous life,” the judge will never be “suzerain” of the earth…the

“spark” in Blood Meridian is to be found in the knowledge that transcendence is possible

even in times of total, unrestrained depravity (90).

Masters believes that the novel focuses on how the kid challenges outside influence, “The epic

battle that the novel charts is ultimately a battle for the kid’s soul, a battle pitting the autonomy

of the kid’s inherited morality against the judge’s encompassing amoral logos” (34). Harold

Bloom also reinforces the idea the epilogue offers a message of hope,

Perhaps all the reader can surmise with some certainty is that the man striking the

fire in the rock at dawn is an opposing figure in regard to the evening redness in

the West. The judge never sleeps, and perhaps will never die, but a new

Prometheus may be rising up to go against him (262-263).

Mark Busby in his analysis of the epilogue in Blood Meridian believes that the final page

of the novel offers a counterargument from the nihilism of the judge, “… the myth of Sisyphus is

an antidote to pessimism by declaring that the single individual can assert his consciousness over

despair and through an act of will achieve a humanity seemingly denied by a mere consideration

of fact. Roll the rock, dig the hole, strike the fire—essence transcends essence” (94-95).

Kant’s categorical imperative and the narrative of the kid offer strong convictions about

the power of individual thought which dictate our moral law. In Critique of Practical Reason

Kant states, “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and reverance,

the more often and more steadily we reflect one reflects upon them: the starry heavens above me

and the moral law within me (Kant 269). Both the “starry heavens” and “moral law” in Kant’s

moral theory echo the message in Blood Meridian about the mystical origin of morality.
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Works Cited

Bloom, Harold. How to Read and Why. Simon and Schuster, 2001.

Busby, Mark. “Rolling the Stone, Sisyphus and the Epilogue of Blood Meridian.” Southwestern
American Literature, vol. 36, no. 3, 2011, pp. 87–95, https://search-ebscohost-
com.colorado.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hgh&AN=67153937&site=ehost-
live&scope=site

Carson, Jordan. “Drawing Fire from the Text: Narrative and Morality in Blood Meridian.” The
Cormac McCarthy Journal, vol. 12, 2014, pp. 20–38, https://www-jstor-
org.colorado.idm.oclc.org/stable/pdf/10.5325/cormmccaj.12.20.pdf?refreqid=excelsior
%3A19d90f4239152a2712d6ea7546577cdb.

Guyer, Paul. The Cambridge Companion to Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Cambridge
University Press, 2010, doi:10.1017/CCOL9780521883863.

Johnson, Robert, and Adam Cureton. “Kant’s Moral Philosophy.” Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy, 2016, https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/kant-moral/

Josyph, Peter. Adventures in Reading Cormac McCarthy. The Scarecrow Press, 2010.

Kant, Immanuel, and Allen W. Wood. Practical Philosophy. Edited by Mary J. Gregor,
Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Masters, Joshua J. “‘Witness to the Uttermost Edge of the World: Judge Holden’s Textual
Enterprise in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary
Fiction, vol. 40, no. 1, 1998, pp. 25–37, doi:10.1080/00111619809601562.

McCarthy, Cormac. Blood Meridian, or, The Evening Redness in the West. Random House,
1992.

Mundik, Petra. “‘Striking the Fire Out of the Rock’: Gnostic Theology in Cormac McCarthy’s
Blood Meridian.” South Central Review, vol. 26, no. 3, 2009, pp. 72–97,
doi:10.1353/scr.0.0057.

Rohlf, Michael. “Immanuel Kant.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2018,

https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2018/entries/kant/

Sepich, John. Notes on Blood Meridian. University of Texas Press, 1993.

Vieth, Ronja. “A Frontier Myth Turns Gothic: Blood Meridian; or, Evening Redness in the
West.” Cormac McCarthy Journal, vol. 8, no. 1, 2010, pp. 47–62.
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2011280347&site=ehost-
live&scope=site.
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Williams, Zachary A. “The Weakness of God in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian.” Critique
Studies in Contemporary Fiction, vol. 57, no. 3, Routledge, 2016, pp. 323–34,
doi:10.1080/00111619.2015.1068735.