The Authority of Currency in Cormac McCarthy’s: Blood Meridian

Abstract

Multiple McCarthy scholars have written about Blood Meridian as a commentary on the development of the geopolitical and legal structures of the modern United States. This article attempts to do the same with shifts in economic structures. These shifts manifest themselves in the novel through the motif of coins and specie, objects that Glanton and his men grant an authority to that is almost absolute. Coins emerge repeatedly throughout the novel, ascending nearly to the realm of the supernatural. This culminates in the coldforger scene in which the authority of currency is seen to be the judge’s central aim. The judge’s attempts to kill the kid can then be partially connected with his refusal to accept the authority of currency, a reading justified by the correspondence of their encounter in the jakes with important historical developments in American currency. Keywords: Blood Meridian, currency, economics, Judge Holden, coldforger