The Bloodthirsty Conqueror And The Nameless Rebel

Cormac McCarthy is a renowned American novelist.His Blood Meridian has been praised as one of the most outstanding 100 English novels in the 20th century.Based on Samuel Chamberlain's autobiography My Confessions:Recollections of a Rogue,McCarthy created Blood Meridian,depicting Glanton Gang,which wantonly slaughtered American Indians and took their scalps for rewards on the US-Mexico border from 1846 to 1848.The book presented the catastrophic miseries brought by war and the sufferings and despair people suffered afterwards.With Carl Jung's theory of Collective Unconscious and its Persona,Shadow and Self three archetypes as the theoretical basis,this thesis analyzes the two main characters' change of Self under the influence of Persona and Shadow,and McCarthy's reflections on humanity.With an extreme split personality,the Judge loses his Self.Struggling to free himself from the contradictory personality,the Kid realizes spiritual enhancement and regains his Self.The strong contrasting destinies of the Judge and the Kid demonstrate the dynamic relations among Persona,Shadow and Self,the three aspects of personality.First of all,the thesis gives an overview to McCarthy and his major works including Blood Meridian,reviews both overseas and domestic studies on McCarthy and Blood Meridian,and introduces the theoretical basis as well as research significance of this thesis.Then an introduction is given on Jung's theory of Collective Unconscious,Persona,Shadow and Self,the three archetypes of Collective Unconscious,and the relationships among them.With conflicted Persona and Shadow,people will lose Self,while with balanced Persona and Shadow,people will regain Self.In the body part,the thesis makes an comparative analysis of the two protagonists,and reveals the Judge's loss of Self with the extremely inflated Persona of a supreme ruler and the exceedingly suppressed fear of nature Shadow,and the Kid's regaining of Self through striking a new round of balance between his killer Persona and reverence for life Shadow.With the Persona of an almighty leader of the universe,the Judge turns to war to defend his absolute authority.However,under the influence of Collective Unconscious,his Shadow of fear of nature makes him shudder.Tortured by severe internal conflicts,he turns to egocentrism for deliverance and finally goes insane.In striking contrast to the Judge,the Kid commits a series of heinous massacres with the Persona of an innocent killer.However,his Shadow of reverence for life inherits from his forefathers makes him realize an identification.Getting rid of his contradictory inner heart,he finally unmasks his scalp hunter Persona and receives salvation.Through detailed analysis of the relationship among Persona,Shadow,and Self,this thesis probes into the Judge's insanity and the Kid's rebellion and concludes that:Persona and Shadow affect each other mutually;Self is not unchanging but makes dynamic adjustment under the combined effects of Persona and Shadow;the formation of a sound personality calls for the balanced development of all three archetypes.Moreover,McCarthy also expresses in the novel his hatred of war,his reverence for life,and his confidence in humanity.