Just finished Blood Meridian

I was worn out reading that book by all the words I had to look up. He went deep into the thesaurus with that book! He is my favorite author by far.

“The good book says that he that lives by the sword shall perish by the sword, said the black. The judge smiled, his face shining with grease. What right man would have it any other way? he said.”

My favorite line from the whole book

Just finished it today and I’m of the opinion that the ending is ambiguous. *Spoilers* below




I can see how it could be taken literally that the Judge killed the Kid in the outhouse at the end but I think it’s a metaphor. I think the Kid found the little girl hiding in the outhouse and raped and killed her himself, and that was the naked Judge finally “embracing” him. When the two men going down to the jakes find a third man urinating in the mud telling them not to go in, I think that third man was the Kid.

What are your thoughts? I’m not married to this theory, it’s obviously plausible that the Judge killed both the girl and the Kid in the outhouse but I have a feeling the man telling the others not to look was the Kid himself.