Blood Meridian

Dances and dancing recur as motifs throughout Blood Meridian. Dancing is used as a form of celebration, often associated with debauchery. When Glanton’s gang returns to the governor’s mansion, for example, its drunken revelry involves a great deal of dancing through the streets. Black Jackson becomes involved in a celebration one evening, and he is pushed onto a stage to dance with the traveling magicians. Even Cloyce’s brother dances without inhibition when he is released from his cage. Dancing in Blood Meridian is done by characters who do not feel constrained, either by social morals, racism, or physical restraints. They dance as an elemental, bodily expression of their freedom and their desire to have fun at any cost.

The character most associated with dancing is Holden, who dances, sings, plays musical instruments, and encourages everyone around him to join him in the dance. As Holden explains to the kid, however, the dance is not necessarily an expression of joy. Instead, Holden views dancing as a symbol of war. He dances as though he is performing a ritual that represents war and violence, insisting that neither the dance, war, nor Holden will ever stop. Holden views dancing as a form of social expression that follows a set order. Each person involved in the dance follows a regimented series of steps, following a pattern in which each dancer has their role in a larger system. Through dance, an individual gives their movements and expression a purpose. As in warfare, people justify their existence through taking part in a larger social ritual that transcends their individuality and makes them part of a society, even if that ritual requires them to be drunk, debauched, violent, or brutal. Holden views dancing as a symbolic demonstration of people’s willingness to join him, of their desire to sink to his level and involve themselves in the violence of existence.

The last image of Holden in the novel is of him dancing feverishly in the tavern after dragging the kid into an outhouse. At this point in the narrative, Holden has finally performed his reckoning on the kid and passed judgment over what he believes to be the kid’s betrayal of the gang. To Holden, the kid’s ending is inevitable. However, he views this moment as part of a larger dance. The dance continues, even after the kid’s death. The kid learns earlier that every member of the gang has encountered Holden at some point in their lives. Now, each of them is dead. They have all taken part in Holden’s dance but only Holden is left dancing. As Holden shouts in his final scene, he will never stop dancing. He is a force of nature, an unstoppable reckoner of people who exist in the brutal, violent society. He is not constrained by morals or beliefs because he is not a man like other men. Instead, Holden is an expression of the symbolic dance. He is the system that the dance represents, the human habit of war and violence that cannot be stopped. Holden, like the dance, like warfare, will never stop. The kid is a temporary participant in an infinite regimen of steps and rituals. The kid is just one dancer while Holden is the dance itself.