How we cite our quotes:
Quote #7
"The man as they rode turned black in the sun from the blood on their clothes and their faces and then paled slowly in the rising dust until they assumed once more the color of the land through which they passed" (12.53).
The more blood Glanton's men get on their clothes, the more they blend in with the Southwestern landscape of this novel. It's as though their connection to violence gives them a more intimate relationship with the desert they're always riding through.
Quote #8
"[They] rode infatuate and half fond toward the red demise of that day, toward the evening lands and the distant pandemonium of the sun" (13.68).
When you see words like "demise" and "pandemonium" used to describe a landscape, you can bet your last dollar that McCarthy is making a symbolic point. In this case, the landscape reflects the death and madness that's always hanging over Glanton's band of bloodthirsty men. Maybe they could use a change of scenery…
Quote #9
"Only nature can enslave man and only when the existence of each last entity is routed out and made to stand naked before him will he be properly suzerain of the earth" (14.62).
The judge is convinced that as long as there are things in nature that men don't know about, nature will always have the upper hand. That's why he spends so much time writing in his ledger and trying to learn as much about nature as he can.