Part 1 of Blood Merid­i­an intro­duces the pro­tag­o­nist, a young boy, who is already bur­dened by loss and vio­lence before he even embarks on his jour­ney. Born under the dra­mat­ic spec­ta­cle of a mete­or show­er, the boy’s ear­ly years are marked by tragedy, espe­cial­ly the death of his moth­er, which leaves a deep emo­tion­al scar. Raised by a neglect­ful father—a for­mer school­teacher who now spends his days drown­ing in alcohol—the boy’s for­ma­tive years are devoid of nur­tur­ing or sta­bil­i­ty. His father, a detached fig­ure, offers lit­tle guid­ance, leav­ing the boy to nav­i­gate a world defined by bru­tal­i­ty and tur­moil. This envi­ron­ment of neglect and vio­lence pre­pares the boy for the dif­fi­cult path ahead, one where sur­vival will depend not on moral integri­ty but on his abil­i­ty to adapt to the sav­age real­i­ties of the world.

At the age of four­teen, des­per­ate to escape his tox­ic home life, the boy sets out west­ward, leav­ing behind the famil­iar but oppres­sive land­scape of his upbring­ing. Along the way, he wit­ness­es the hard­ship of oth­ers, includ­ing enslaved peo­ple toil­ing in cot­ton fields, which high­lights the cru­el­ty that per­sists through­out the land. The boy’s jour­ney takes him to Saint Louis, where he embarks on a forty-two-day jour­ney down the riv­er to New Orleans aboard a flat­boat. The jour­ney itself mir­rors the boy’s inner chaos—navigating a tur­bu­lent world filled with con­flict­ing emo­tions and expe­ri­ences. Dur­ing his trav­els, the boy becomes entan­gled in vio­lent encoun­ters with sailors, fight­ing not only to sur­vive but to assert him­self with­in the harsh envi­ron­ments he encoun­ters. These expe­ri­ences expose him to a range of cul­tures and indi­vid­u­als, each con­tribut­ing to his com­plex under­stand­ing of sur­vival, con­flict, and the capac­i­ty for cru­el­ty in the world.

In New Orleans, a Mal­tese boatswain shoots the boy dur­ing a bar alter­ca­tion, an event that leaves him wound­ed and in need of care. A tavernkeeper’s wife nurs­es him back to health, but the boy, now stripped of his resources, is left with lit­tle choice but to board a ship head­ed for Texas. His arrival in Texas brings a new wave of unset­tling expe­ri­ences, as the fog­gy land­scape around him feels both alien and hos­tile. As he looks upon the set­tlers in this unfor­giv­ing land, he sees the hard­ship writ­ten on their faces—their lives are shaped by vio­lence, des­per­a­tion, and a con­stant fight for sur­vival. This real­iza­tion dawns on him as he rec­og­nizes that he, too, is enter­ing a land where the rules are dic­tat­ed by force and the law of the strongest.

A week after arriv­ing in Texas, the boy stum­bles upon a revival meet­ing led by Rev­erend Green, where an atmos­phere of ten­sion per­vades the gath­er­ing. The arrival of a mas­sive bald man chal­lenges the reverend’s author­i­ty, caus­ing a rift among the crowd as the man calls the preach­er an impos­tor. The result­ing chaos is a stark dis­play of how frag­ile order is in this land, and the boy observes with a sense of detach­ment, tak­ing in the con­flict around him. The scene reveals that the world the boy now inhab­its is one where pow­er and author­i­ty are con­stant­ly con­test­ed, and the lines between right and wrong are drawn with shift­ing bound­aries.

After the tumul­tuous scene, the boy meets Toad­vine, a fel­low drifter who shares his sense of alien­ation and unrest. Their friend­ship grows out of their shared under­stand­ing of the law­less­ness around them, and soon the boy and Toad­vine par­take in set­ting fire to a hotel room, cre­at­ing yet anoth­er vio­lent spec­ta­cle in their wake. As they escape the burn­ing build­ing, it becomes clear that their rela­tion­ship is built on chaos and destruc­tion, push­ing the boy deep­er into the vio­lent world he has become a part of. The thrill of their reck­less actions draws them clos­er, but it also marks a sig­nif­i­cant turn­ing point in the boy’s transformation—a descent into the bru­tal real­i­ty of a life with­out mer­cy.

This chap­ter serves as a foun­da­tion for the boy’s jour­ney, lay­ing the ground­work for his even­tu­al evo­lu­tion into a prod­uct of the world’s vio­lence and law­less­ness. Through his trav­els and encoun­ters, the boy moves from a place of inno­cence, shaped by neglect and loss, into a world where sur­vival hinges on the abil­i­ty to nav­i­gate bru­tal­i­ty. Each expe­ri­ence serves to erode his for­mer ideals, replac­ing them with the harsh real­i­ties of a life defined by con­flict, vio­lence, and an ever-present need to adapt. The boy’s sto­ry is one of sur­vival, but it also explores the moral decay that comes with liv­ing in a world where vio­lence is not only com­mon but often nec­es­sary. This jour­ney will chal­lenge his under­stand­ing of human nature and force him to grap­ple with the dark­er aspects of exis­tence as he moves for­ward into the chaos of the Amer­i­can West.