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> ... a Texas Mennonite, who begs the soldiers not to march on to Mexico, saying ominously: “The wrath of God lies sleeping. […] Hell ain’t half full. Hear me.
by everybodyknows 3y ago
> ... a Texas Mennonite, who begs the soldiers not to march on to Mexico, saying ominously: “The wrath of God lies sleeping. […] Hell ain’t half full. Hear me. Ye carry war of a madman’s making onto a foreign land. Ye’ll wake more than the dogs.”
The "disordered Mennonite" further tells the irregulars "If ye cross yon river ye'll not cross it back".
This prophecy is delivered in a barroom at the border, one of three auguries of doom delivered by various elders the Kid happens upon. With these McCarthy repeatedly points the reader back to a long heritage of epic tragedy: Moby Dick, Macbeth, and The Iliad.
Any other obsessive re-reader out there care to recall the other two such episodes?
- defen 3y agoThe disordered Mennonite recalls Elijah's prophecy in Moby Dick Macbeth - I'm guessing you mean the Tarot divination scene where we hear an obscured version of Glanton's fate (echoes of the three witches)? The Iliad - It's been a while since I read this one so I'm having trouble figuring it out. There's the hermit in chapter 2 but I don't recall him making any specific prophecies other than talking about man's capacity for evil ("Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine."), nor can I make a connection to the Iliad. One vague Iliad connection I can think of is that the wind saves Tobin and the kid when they're hiding from the judge, which vaguely recalls Calchas's prophecy of a favorable wind (although that required sacrificing Iphigenia which I don't think has any parallels in the novel)