Blood Meridian

by

Cormac McCarthy

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John Joel Glanton Character Analysis

The leader of the gang of scalp hunters featured in the novel, Glanton is a small dark-haired man who has left his wife and daughter for a life of bloodshed and debauchery. After the Judge saved his gang from the Apaches, Glanton entered into something of a terrible covenant with the Judge, who became his foremost deputy. Obsessed with the inexorable workings of fate, Glanton claims agency over his own end by self-destructively embracing it; after a bounty is posted on his head in Mexico, he becomes more and more possessed by a mad and explosive intensity, leading his gang on to the Colorado River where they violently betray Yuma Indians with whom they’ve conspired and seize Dr. Lincoln’s ferry. The Yumas respond in kind, massacring the gang; Glanton dies at the hands of the Yuma leader Caballo en Pelo, and his corpse is hurled onto a bonfire.

John Joel Glanton Quotes in Blood Meridian

The Blood Meridian quotes below are all either spoken by John Joel Glanton or refer to John Joel Glanton. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Warfare and Domination Theme Icon
).
Chapter 13 Quotes

They entered the city haggard and filthy and reeking with the blood of the citizenry for whose protection they had contracted. The scalps of the slain villagers were strung from the windows of the governor’s house and the partisans were paid out of the all but exhausted coffers and the Sociedad was disbanded and the bounty rescinded. Within a week of their quitting the city there would be a price of eight thousand pesos posted for Glanton’s head.

Related Characters: John Joel Glanton
Page Number: 181
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16 Quotes

The judge emerged from the darkness. Evening, Lieutenant, he said. Are these men the witnesses?
Couts looked at his corporal. No, he said. They aint witnesses. Hell, Captain. You all were seen to enter the premises and seen to leave after the shot was fired. Are you going to deny that you and your men took your dinner there?
Deny ever goddamned word of it, said Glanton.

Related Characters: Judge Holden (speaker), John Joel Glanton (speaker), Lieutenant Couts (speaker)
Page Number: 233
Explanation and Analysis:
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John Joel Glanton Quotes in Blood Meridian

The Blood Meridian quotes below are all either spoken by John Joel Glanton or refer to John Joel Glanton. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Warfare and Domination Theme Icon
).
Chapter 13 Quotes

They entered the city haggard and filthy and reeking with the blood of the citizenry for whose protection they had contracted. The scalps of the slain villagers were strung from the windows of the governor’s house and the partisans were paid out of the all but exhausted coffers and the Sociedad was disbanded and the bounty rescinded. Within a week of their quitting the city there would be a price of eight thousand pesos posted for Glanton’s head.

Related Characters: John Joel Glanton
Page Number: 181
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16 Quotes

The judge emerged from the darkness. Evening, Lieutenant, he said. Are these men the witnesses?
Couts looked at his corporal. No, he said. They aint witnesses. Hell, Captain. You all were seen to enter the premises and seen to leave after the shot was fired. Are you going to deny that you and your men took your dinner there?
Deny ever goddamned word of it, said Glanton.

Related Characters: Judge Holden (speaker), John Joel Glanton (speaker), Lieutenant Couts (speaker)
Page Number: 233
Explanation and Analysis: