Tricksters and Lightbringers in McCarthy's Post-Appalachian Novels

Abstract

Yet man is born trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.Job 5:7Despite the generic and stylistic differences in the six books published by Cormac McCarthy since he leftTennessee (Blood Meridian, The Border Trilogy, No Country for Old Men, and The Road), a number of thematic consistencies link the novels together. Beginning with Blood Meridian, McCarthy introduces a figurative journey peopled by Jungian archetypes, chronicling humankind's advance into the chaotic Evening Redness in the West until its eventual retreat into the gray and cold East in The Road. Particularly, he makes use of varied manifestations of the Trickster character, that archetypal demigod at odds with the will of the gods and universe, whether manifested by Loki among the Norse, Coyote, Hare, or Raven among various Native American tribes, Hermes or Prometheus in Greek mythology, or even Lucifer in Christian lore.As Edwin T. Arnold has pointed out, McCarthy is fond of weaving various strands into the evolving tapestry of his books that may be further teased out in later works. For example, Blood Meridian ends with an epilogue portraying a man creating a series of holes for fence poles across the plains of what is presumably West Texas, a track of holes that runs the rim of the visible ground (337). In the beginning of All the Pretty Horses, as Arnold notes, that trail of postholes becomes the endless fenceline down the dead straight right of (18). More obviously, Cities of the Plain unites the protagonists of the two preceding books. No Country ends with SheriffBell's dream of riding with his father back in older times into a pass in the mountains; as his father rides past the snow the ground, Bell sees him carryin fire in a horn the way people used do and he knows his father is going ahead to make a fire somewhere out in all that dark and all that cold and I knew that whenever I got he would be there (309). In The Road, as the man and his son are traversing a mountain pass the East as they seek a path south for the winter, the boy asks:We're going be okay, aren't we Papa?Yes. We are.And nothing bad is going happen us.That's right.Because we're carrying the fire.Yes. Because we're carrying the fire. (83)When considered collectively, each novel of the six tells the story of either a journey or a series of journeys. As every reader of Blood Meridian knows, They rode on is repeated so often that it becomes a stylistic refrain as Glanton's gang scours the southwest. All the Pretty Horses describes John Grady Cole and Rawlins' journey into Mexico; The Crossing portrays multiple crossings south of the border by Billy Parham. Although Cities the Plain is mostly set in one place, its epilogue has Billy wandering the Earth for years. In No Country for Old Men Llewelyn Moss is the run from Chigurh, and Bell must follow their winding path through Texas. The journey-quest of The Road is so emphasized in terms of the novel's plot and unified themes that the title itself reflects the essential character of the novel. The physical wanderings of these characters, as is so often the case in literature, reflect their spiritual wanderings as well.Despite the stylistic differences, Blood Meridian-McCarthy's first post-Appalachian novel-and The Road-his return Appalachia-bear a large number of similarities. Both novels subject their central characters extreme deprivation and degradation. Both depict up close and relentless views of barbaric savagery. Both take place across desolate, unforgiving landscapes. As the two central characters are labeled rather than named in The Road (they are referred as the man and his son), the protagonist of Blood Meridian is referred as the kid. While his nemesis Judge Holden is named (and based an actual historical source), he is generally referred as the judge. As a result, the two works make useful bookends for consideration of McCarthy's treatment of tricksters and lightbringers. …