I can’t understand this sentence.

It's an unnecessarily obscurely worded sentence. He ain't no Faulkner.

The gist of it is that the white guy isn't respecting the black guy's space. He's riding uncomfortably close, right in the black guy's shadow and talking to him in a creepily intimate way almost as if the white guy can read the black guy's mind and know how to provoke him.

This is unnecessarily complicated and weirdly structured to seem more.. dramatic? poetic? It's definitely not normal English, and if you tried to say it people would look at you funny.

First of all, props to you. This is high-level stuff. There’s a lot of native English speakers out there who would have trouble with this. If you have any specific vocabulary words from this that you would like to know the meaning of I would be happy to help, but to me on its own, this sentence means absolutely nothing

Needlessly complex. You should try an easier book.

"the shape" = the black man's shadow which is cast "on that rocky ground" "stood the sun from" = from which he withstood the sun, i.e. that he used as shade from the sun The second part of that sentence could be rewritten as "the shadow on that rocky ground, from which he withstood the sun, included a part of the man himself, and put him in danger". The first part is saying that by using his shadow in this way, the white man was taking advantage of the black man in a way that made him feel violated and "othered". This book is not meant to be straightforward to read! It's using unusual grammar to create a rhythm in the language, to instill a particular effect in the reader. I think it's extremely effective myself.

Oh boy, Cormac McCarthy is *decidedly not* what I'd recommend for an English learner. He's notorious for run-on sentences, overly-flowery language, and a total disregard for the normal rules of punctuation, which makes his prose difficult for even native speakers (especially in *Blood Meridian*...) and fascinating for people with English degrees. But, if English is not your first language, he's absolutely nightmarish. With more regular formatting, this passage might read something like: >In this company there rode two men named Jackson; one black, one white, both forenamed John. Bad blood lay between them and, as they rode up under the barren mountains, the white man would fall back alongside the other and take his shadow for the shade that was in it and whisper to him. The black would check or start his horse to shake him off, *as if the white man were in violation of his person or had stumbled onto some ritual dormant in his dark blood or his dark soul, whereby the shape he stood the sun from on that rocky ground bore something of the man himself, and in so doing lay imperiled*. Then, cleaning up the grammar, getting rid of the run-on sentences, and substituting some of the clunkier word choices, you might get something like: >In this company there rode two men named Jackson; one black, one white, both forenamed John. Bad blood lay between them and, as they rode up under the barren mountains, the white man would fall back into the other's shadow, using it for shade, and whisper to him. The black would check or start his horse to shake him off, *as if the white man were in violation of his person or had stumbled onto some perilous ritual dormant in his dark blood or his dark soul, whereby the shape he blocked from the sun on that rocky ground bore something of himself*. Basically, it's a flowery way of saying that the white Jackson was using the black Jackson's shadow as shade and harassing him, which the black Jackson did not appreciate. So, he spurred his horse forward whenever white Jackson rode up behind him, both to deny white Jackson his shade as well as to get away from his malicious whispering.

Atp the author doesn't even want you to understand

It is in plain English.  The previous sentence explains that the black guy would ride faster to get the white guy out of his shadow.  Then, the sentence you don’t understand explains what might be happening. The black guy moves away as if the white guy was “violating his person”, as if the shadow “bore something of the man himself” and standing in it would put him in peril. 

This is such poor writing. ‘Forename’ is not usually a verb and while it is understandable it doesn’t parse well. Bad blood doesn’t usually ‘lie’ anywhere, it ‘is’ usually between people, or ‘runs’ or ‘comes’ between people. ‘Take his shadow for the shade that was in it’ seems nonsensical to me. And then we meet the mess of the sentence that you have struggled with…

I don't think I could diagram it and some would say it's not even a sentence, much less a grammatically correct one, but the author (Cormac McCarthy) is considered by many to be one of America's great writers, so we'll take it as written. Some of the words are used in ways that are not the most common in conversational English. Very roughly, it means black John Jackson didn't like white John Jackson and tried to put distance between them, but white John Jackson insisted on riding so close that his horse was stepping on his shadow. "As if the white man were in *violation* of his *person*" *Violation* in this context means a transgression or infringement. It can sometimes be a synonym for rape, which is obviously not the literal meaning in this case but it may be a deliberate choice to create that association as a metaphor. *Person* can mean the body of a human being (sometimes including their clothing, as in "the police searched his person"). "Some *ritual* *dormant* in his *dark blood* or his *dark soul*." We normally think of *ritual* as a conscious, outward action, but in this case it hints on things going on inside, beneath consciousness, or the potential for such things. (One definition of dormant is "devoid of external activity".) *Dark* emphasizes his blackness, his otherness, but it also carries connotations of things that are mysterious and possibly unholy. *Blood* is literally a physical part of someone and figuratively refers to their ancestors, while *soul* has many different meanings but generally reflects a dualist perspective—a division between the material and the spiritual. So the unknowable thing within him may be in his flesh or his spirit or both. "*Whereby the shape he stood the sun from*" This would be the most difficult part of the sentence for me to make sense of on its own, but from the context it's clearly meant to mean "by which the shadow that he cast." I guess *stood* is supposed to mean "blocked," but I can't say I've seen it used that way before. "*Bore something of the man himself and in so doing lay imperiled*." The shadow is linked to black John Jackson, and they can be hurt if white John Jackson's horse steps on it. I have not read this novel but I think it is extremely unlikely that this passage is meant to be taken literally. It seems to be a simple case of someone trying to get away from another person intruding on his personal space, perhaps deliberately. But it's phrased in a way that suggests that the animosity between the two men may be more than personal, that it may be an ancestral hatred that goes to the very cores of their being. It also puts the black man's action in the context of folk tradition or superstition rather than a natural reaction to being closely followed by someone he doesn't like, which may seem a bit racist, but I think it's important to note that these are not the black man's thoughts, but how he is observed by others. The "as if" is doing a lot.

Very confusing sentence. The part that I'm most unsure about is what is meant by "the shape he stood the sun from on that rocky ground".

White John Jackson keeps “taking” BJJ’s shadow and whispering like a creep. He also fakes “words of love”. Black John Jackson keeps trying to get away when he does this, but WJJ persists. BJJ guesses that WJJ knows some secret vulnerability and is exploiting him.

There is a lot of racism in this paragraph. If you can't understand it; you are blessed to not be racist.

Me neither

It's a white dude chasing down a black dude on horseback. The white guy is so close to the black guy in pursuit he's literally on his shadow. It's just told very dramatically how he is so close to him that it looks like he's violating his own being, his shadow. It just tries to say he's super close in pursuit to him and uses the black guy's shadow to express how they're neck-and-neck *"... as if the white man were in violation of his person..."* this is how close to he is to him, and he measures that by poetically saying the horse the white man is riding on stomps on the black guy's shadow: *"...the shape he stood the sun from on that rocky ground bore something of a man himself and in doing so lay imperiled."* The shadow seems like a real person in danger itself. "to bear" in my interpretation means "resembles" in this case a man. That passage just says the dude is closing in on him on horseback so much he's touching his shadow. That's mostly it.

Studying for your C5 or something?

Very difficult English. The white man would use the black man to block the sun as they rode. And this sentence is saying: the black man felt as if his shadow were an extension of himself, and that therefore the white man using his shadow for shade was somehow dangerous or not right.

Yeah this doesn’t make sense to native speakers, either. 😆 So don’t worry! It honestly feels grammatically incorrect to me. Like maybe the editor accidentally missed this one.

I don't blame you! McCarthy's not easy reading. He's not writing for clarity, but to make an artistic impression. An artless gloss would be: The white man is riding behind the black man, standing in the black man's shadow for shade. The black man feels that his shadow is, in some way, part of himself. The white man standing in the black man's shadow is, magically, a threat to him. Cormac's got a lot of artistic license to make things difficult. What you highlighted is one long run on sentence. "the shape he stood the sun from" is a particularly inventive phrase. I'm not smart enough to figure out how it means "to cast a shadow", but I can deduce from context that it does. He is standing in relation to the sun, and in doing so making a shape. If McCarthy has been translated into your native language, it might be worth checking out from the library. Depending on how faithful the translator has been, you might see how weird the text is.

I think the tricky part of this sentence is when the author is writing about a shadow. that's what I take the cumbersome phrase "the shape he stood the sun from" to mean anyways. so my read is this guy is riding up into the other guy's shadow and whispering to him in a way that is innocuous but is likely charged with some kind of racial tension, based on context. haven't read the book though

It's not actually a complete sentence. If you add "It was" to the beginning, it becomes a complete sentence.

This is a very difficult sentence. I'm pretty well read compared to the general English speaking population, and I had to read it a few times over. Even then, I'm still not sure I totally get it. I understand that it's saying the black man feels threatened by the the white man, to the point where it seems like even the white man's shadow is repelling him. But it's hard to think of how to rephrase it in a simpler way that isn't just completely rewriting it. Vocabulary wise, it's a bit easier to explain. I'm not sure exactly what's tripping you up so apologies for anything you already know: \> As if the white man were in violation of his person "violating their person" in this sense means to disturb someone. The white man is making the black man feel uncomfortable. \> stumbled onto some ritual dormant in his dark blood or his dark soul This is a metaphor. It's saying that the effect the white man has on the black man is almost like magic. It's also saying that the "magic" effect is something inherent to the black man. It's deep in his blood/soul. \> whereby the shape he stood the sun from on that rocky ground I'm sure this just means the shadow of the white man, but I'm just going off the association of words. It's not a natural way to phrase anything, and the writer is being very fancy and loose with their grammar. \>in so doing lay imperiled Imperiled means to be in peril or danger, and so based on the context of the whole passage here I get it's saying the black man feels in danger. I did actually find this reddit post on the same passage without even meaning to: [https://www.reddit.com/r/cormacmccarthy/comments/18t81dk/blood\_meridian\_thoughts\_on\_the\_opening\_passage\_of/](https://www.reddit.com/r/cormacmccarthy/comments/18t81dk/blood_meridian_thoughts_on_the_opening_passage_of/)

It's just poorly written, by someone trying to sound smarter than they are. Like an 8 year old talking about quantum mechanics.

That, my friend, is a sentence fragment and the author should be ashamed.

Man I can't understand that sentence either

Don't feel bad; that's not technically a sentence.

I don't understand either lmao

FULL LIFE CONSEQUENCES!

The responses here are hilarious. I’d love to see a version of _Blood Meridian_ copy-edited by these commenters. Drained dry of its poetry.

The white guy is taking refuge in the black’s guy shadow. The black guy is trying to scare him off by startling his horse, but the white guy feels in trance by the shadow. He’s drawn to it. It contains the essence of the man. And therefore dooms him. That’s just my initial take away. I’ve never read this before. I could be way off. I also don’t know what it actually means. You would have to know the relationship between the two men to fully understand it

Grammar-wise it’s not even a complete sentence.  There’s an implied “It was as if the white man…”. Alternatively replace the period with a comma “…shake him off, as if….”

In the company, there were two men named Jack Johnson. One of them was white, and the other was black. They didn't like each other, and when they were riding with no shade below the mountains, the white man would drop back into the black man's shadow for shade, and the white man would speak so that no one else could hear. The black man would speed up or slow down so that he was no longer close... >As if the white man were in violation of his person As if the white man was actually touching him, >had stumbled onto some dark ritual in his dark blood or his dark soul Pushing himself into the black man's spiritual beliefs >whereby the shape he stood the sun from on that rocky ground bore something of the man himself and in so doing lay imperiled *I assume this is where you're having problems... >whereby the shape he stood Because the shape of the black man... >the sun from on that rocky ground bore something of the man himself ...Was shown by the sun in his shadow on the ground... >and in so doing lay imperiled ...allowing the white man to enter (violate) a part of the black man. >The white man laughed and crooned things to him that sounded like the words of love The white man laughingly mocked the black man pretending like they were good friends.

You're not alone.

Native speaker here.... this reads more like poetry than discourse. I don't blame you for the confusion. This is atypical for the most part.

Translation, to make it easier to read but convey almost the same message: The black man would check or start his horse to shake him off, as if the white man were violating the black man. As if the black man had accidentally become connected to his shadow by some magic ritual, and his shadow had become some sort of vulnerability.

He needs some commas. Haha

My friend, I was tested to have a high school reading level when I was 8 years old. High school here is usually ages 14-17. This passage confused me a great deal. The English language would be cumbersome if we all talked like this all the time. Good luck with that book. Both the subject matter and the author's style with words are really unappealing to me.

It's just disastrously written. Disastrously long, which is ok, and unclear.

Cormac McCarthy is kind of famous for his non-standard grammar and extensive use of run-on sentences, especially in that book. I wouldn't worry about trying to parse it too carefully.

"The shape he bore his sun from" means "shadow". Then the rest becomes clear.

Hmmm, maybe I am dyslexic cause yah, no... I have no idea 😆

I am a native speaker from the Eastern united states. I also did not sentence. this sentance.

"...the shape he stood the sun from on that rocky ground..." This is great, because the malleability of "stand" in English seems to be forgiving to the point that this isn't an error. I'm kind of lost on actual grammar, but "from" means like the black guy is supporting the sun's ability to make a shadow on the ground, or relieving the sun of the default duty of lighting everything up. Kind of like from "stand your round", you support someone else's bar tab.

I consider myself to be quite eloquent and I definitely have to read a lot of mccarthy's passages two or three times before I really start to understand them

Hmm, yeah. "...whereby the shape he stood the sun from on that rocky ground ..." feels like it is missing some punctuation or a preoposition or the word-order is wrong or something. I can't logically parse it, but vibes-wise I'd maybe rephrase it as something like: "...whereby the shape he made by standing in the sunlight, on that rocky ground..." i.e. "the particular way in which he cast a shadow" \--- I *think* it is saying that the white man got a werid feeling when he steped in the black mans shadow, as if it was offensive to step on some part of him. (And maybe he was processing some weird racialised-thought where "the man is black, and his shadow is black, there his shadow holds some part of him (because the blackness is transitive via blood or soul or something)", and then he laughted at his own silly idea because he realises that fanciful notion of 'blackness' is nonsense??) But it is pretty hard for me to read so I'm not confident of that.

Man this is a terrible sentence where the writer is trying to overly flowery and failing.

dark souls mentioned

Well done for understanding the other sentences tbh.

It is saying that the white man liked to bug the Black man by rising in his shadow (enjoying the shade created by the Black man and trash talking him quietly in whispers. Then it goes on to be racist and say that it wasn’t the proximity or the needling, it was that Black man had some (and implying it came from his savage ancestry - so racist) feeling that the white guy was being creepy riding in his shadow, like that it could have some dark magic negative affect on the Black man. It is racist bullshit.

me neither. seems very pretentious and trying to sound smart. I can understand it but it's definitely superfluous writing.

Is the sentence actually grammatically correct? After browsing this thread it's obvious the author is a big deal and he's clearly a master of the artful use of language, but I want to know if this is a case of "the sentence ignores the rules of English but that's fine because it's cool and evocative" or if it is really actually grammatically sound but I'm just not capable enough to discern that.

My native tongue is english and I cant understand it

I'll say it. This is simply poorly written. Pretentious readers call it poetry. These are the same people who worship David Lynch's clumsy filmmaking. They'll go to their graves feeling they're better than the philistines who just don't get it. They have no choice because it's the basis of their self esteem.

Me either, and I've been speaking English for 50+ years

This is very poorly written. I honestly don't understand why Blood Meridian is touted as one of the best pieces of literature.

I enjoy unusual diction, sentence forms, etc. That “sentence” is simply ridiculous, imho! Not every work of art is entirely coherent.

This is very obtuse prose; all artistic and flowery. The literal meanings of phrases sort of blurs with the words around them, as the words are meant to paint more of an impression of what's happening rather than give a clear and precise account of events. In context with the preceding sentences, this seems to be about a White man who, to annoy a Black man with the same name as him, is following in the shadow of said Black man. In the highlighted sentence, it seems to be describing how the Black man feels endangered or is made uncomfortable by the manner in which the White man is following him. It's giving a more emotive reasoning for the Black man's actions in the previous sentence; "The black would check or start his horse to shake him off." I suppose in order to evoke a stronger feeling from the reader. I think the usage of punctuation isn't very good, from a technical standpoint. Some of the places the writer ends sentences seem odd, as ideas in some sentences seem more closely tied to other sentences than to their own. However, I suspect that the writing is either quite old, or written by someone who fancies themselves a poet, and these mishandlings of punctuation are likely intentional in order to get the reader to read the story closer to the way the author intended it to be read. Long story short: It's a metaphor.

I think it's missing a couple of commas. I give the writer an F.

HAHAHA omg I haven't read Cormac McCarthy but I have some prejudices about his writing and wow does this sentence conform to them. As a native English speaker, I found this rather difficult to parse myself because the sentence is so complex the grammar is not really strictly correct. (The underlined portion seems to be a sentence fragment reflecting on the previous sentence rather than a true sentence. Certainly not usual to have so many clauses in a sentence fragment.) I had to read it several times to get the sense. In pieces: As if the white man were in violation of his person: Black John Jackson is acting as if White John Jackson is invading his personal space (by standing in his shadow). had stumbled onto some ritual dormant in his dark blood or his dark soul: BJJ rearing his horse as if to shake WJJ off his like a magic ritual (this description seems a bit racist to me, btw). whereby the shape he stood the sun from on that rocky ground bore something of the man himself and in doing so lay imperiled: it is as if the shadow that BJJ cast contains part of his soul or his self, and WJJ standing in the shadow threatens him with harm. In conclusion: BJJ gets annoyed and fusses when WJJ gets too close or steps on his shadow, and McCarthy is describing this in an atmospheric but somewhat racist way by appealing to the idea that BJJ is instinctively performing a kind of exorcism ritual rooted in his "dark soul". Although I have, again, not read McCarthy I feel pretty comfortable guessing that, while somewhat atmospheric, this is \*not\* his best right writing and his editor dropped the ball a little bit by not tidying up.

Because Cormac McCarthy is a crap writer. There, I said it.

I don’t really understand it either. Funny I didn’t know it was by him when I looked at the excerpt and for some reason The Road popped into my head

It's not your fault, it's the author's lol

I'm a native speaker and I have no idea either lol

The wording of this book is needlessly convoluted. I think it’s saying that when the guy riding behind gets so close he’s in the others shadow, the man in front reacts in such a way that it’s as if the man behind is stepping on part of his physical body rather than his shadow. To me the way it’s worded makes it sound like the narrator believes the man in fronts reaction to be extreme or dramatic, but if you read the whole paragraph you can see that the man in front is reacting that way because the man behind does this often, and he only does this so he can say what I presume are mean things to him. Therefore, because this is a habitual action of the man behind and the man in front knows what he intends by doing so, the man in front now reacts preemptively when the other man tries to ride in his shadow by abruptly changing his riding pattern, I guess maybe like break checking? I guess a shorter summary would be that the white guy is tailgating the black guy to say mean stuff, so each time the white guy gets close enough that he’s in the black guys shadow, the black guy has taken to speeding up/break checking the other guy to get him to back off. Only they’re on horses.

Man, that is some cumbersome prose. It's as if you asked ChatGPT to write the most overly verbose and complex sentence to impede comprehension!

This sentence is fully garbage, don’t worry.