Blood Meridian

Plot

Characters

Major characters

• The kid: The novel's anti-heroic protagonist or pseudo-protagonist, the kid is an illiterate Tennessean whose mother died in childbirth. At 14, he runs away from his father and sister. He is said to have "a taste for mindless violence" and is involved in brutal actions throughout the novel. He enters inherently violent professions, those primarily being his recruitment into Captain White's filibuster company and later Glanton's gang of scalphunters, thereby securing release from a prison in Chihuahua, Mexico. The kid takes part in many of the Glanton gang's scalp-hunting raids, including those against peaceful agrarian Native Americans and unprotected Mexican villages, but ultimately displays a moral fiber that puts him at odds with Judge Holden. "The kid" is referred to as "the man" in the final chapter of the novel, which takes place in 1878.
• Judge Holden, or "the judge": A huge, pale, and hairless man who may or may not be supernatural. He is a polyglot and polymath and a keen examiner and recorder of the natural world. He is extremely violent and deviant. He is said to have accompanied Glanton's gang since they found him sitting alone on a rock in the middle of the desert. The judge subsequently saves the gunpowder-less gang from pursuing Apaches by leading them to various natural resources from which he is able to collect and eventually create gunpowder. It is hinted that he and Glanton have some manner of pact. He gradually becomes the antagonist to the kid after the dissolution of Glanton's gang, occasionally having brief reunions with the kid. Unlike the rest of the gang, Holden is socially refined and remarkably well educated; however, he perceives the world as ultimately violent, fatalistic, and liable to an endless cycle of bloody conquest, with human nature and autonomy defined by the endurance and omnipresence of war. His beliefs are expounded upon in speeches and stories throughout the novel.
• John Joel Glanton, or simply "Glanton": The American leader, or "captain", of a gang of scalphunters who murder Native Americans and Mexican civilians and military alike. Little of his history and appearance are detailed, except that he is physically small with black hair, and has a wife and child in Texas. He is a clever strategist. His last major conquest is the gang's seizure of a profitable Colorado River ferry, which ultimately leads to an ambush by the Yumas in which he is killed.
• Louis Toadvine, or simply "Toadvine": A seasoned outlaw with whom the kid brawls with, though the kid later assists him with assaulting a man, burning down a hotel in the process. Toadvine has no ears and his forehead is branded with the letters H and T and F. He reappears unexpectedly as a cellmate of the kid in the Chihuahua prison. From there, he mendaciously negotiates the release of himself, the kid, and one other inmate into Glanton's gang. Toadvine is not as depraved as some of the gang, questioning the killing of innocents, but is nonetheless a violent criminal. He is hanged in Los Angeles alongside David Brown.
• Ben Tobin, "the priest", or "the ex-priest": A member of the gang and formerly a novice of the Society of Jesus. Tobin remains deeply religious. He feels an apparently paternalistic bond with the kid and abhors the judge and his philosophy. He and the judge gradually become great spiritual enemies, and he encourages the kid at multiple junctures to shoot the judge, to no avail. He survives the Yuma massacre of Glanton's gang, but is non-fatally shot in the neck by the judge. He is last seen in San Diego, separating from the kid to search for a doctor for both of their injuries. The kid seeks news of him in San Diego and Los Angeles, but never hears from or meets him again.

  Other recurring characters

• Captain White, or "the captain": An American veteran soldier and filibuster who believes that Mexico is a lawless nation destined to be conquered by the United States. Captain White leads a patchwork company of militants into Mexico along with the recently recruited "kid." After weeks of travel through the harsh Mexican desert, the company is ambushed by a Comanche war party. Captain White escapes with a few of his "officers," but is ultimately caught and beheaded. Mexican soldiers show his preserved head in a jar to the kid, who disavows any relationship to him.
• Bathcat, or "the Vandiemenlander": Born in the United Kingdom in Wales, Bathcat went to Van Diemen's Land to hunt Aborigines. He has three fingers on his right hand. Aside from a necklace of ears, his most notable trait is a number tattooed on the inside of his forearm, suggesting that he may have been sent to the colony as a convict. He is tortured and killed by Native Americans during their travels through Pimería Alta; a fate that was foretold during his introduction.
• David Brown, or simply "Davy" or "Brown": A member of the Glanton gang who wears a necklace of human ears – likely taken from Bathcat's corpse. He is arrested in San Diego, having been sent there to purchase supplies for the gang's Colorado River settlement. He schemes his own release by tempting a young soldier with the coins in his possession, alleged money buried in the desert, and a plan to overthrow Glanton's profitable ferry operation, but shoots the soldier shortly after the two leave San Diego together. He impliedly deserts the gang and avoids the Yuma attack. He is hanged with Toadvine in Los Angeles. After his hanging, the kid purchases his scapular of ears off a soldier and begins wearing it.
• James Robert Bell, or "the imbecile," "the idiot": A mentally-disabled man who becomes affiliated with the Glanton gang after his brother, Cloyce, joins. The idiot was shipped in a box into his brother's "care" after the death of their mother. Before the brothers joined, Cloyce kept the idiot in a cage, advertising him as "The Wild Man" and charging money to see him. He is regularly depicted as naked and covered in his own feces. After he is bathed, dressed, and his cage is burned down by a well-meaning group of women at the Colorado River, he enters the river again at night, loses his footing, and nearly drowns. The judge saves him, and the idiot subsequently remains attached to the judge. After escaping the Yuma attack with the help of the judge, the idiot is later seen leashed by the judge. However, by the time the judge visits the kid in San Diego, the idiot is no longer present, leaving his fate unknown.
• John Jackson, or "Jackson": Two men in Glanton's gang one Black and one White share the name "John Jackson." There is deep-seated hostility between the Jacksons for reasons unexplained, though no one in the gang intervenes. After attempting to intimidate the Black Jackson away from a campfire with a threat of violence, the White Jackson is decapitated by the Black Jackson. "Black Jackson" assumes an integral role in the gang. While still referred to by numerous slurs, Jackson is nonetheless treated as part of a "body" that cannot have any part killed or violated. He appears to have a special relationship with Judge Holden, as the judge goes to great lengths to rescue him after a confrontation on a mountain pass, and he wears the same robes as the judge before becoming the first casualty of the Yuma attack.