As the “protagonist” of Blood and Thunder, Kit Carson was a character whose paradoxes paralleled the complexity of his times. Nothing was black and white, and lines of mortality and identity were constantly blurred. An illiterate man, Carson often fell under the thrall of men he perceived as more educated. He committed atrocities on their behalf that he didn’t commit when under his own devices.

While many historians consider Carson first and foremost an Indian fighter, Sides argues that “Carson did not hate Indians” (34). In many ways Carson’s personality and way of life were shaped by the Indians more than by Anglo-American society. He was illiterate but spoke at least six Indian languages; he even married to two Indian women. Despite all this, he would go on to be perhaps the single most influential figure in the destruction of Indian culture in the Southwest. 

Carson was both incredibly violent and incredibly kind. He mutilated the body of an Indian he respected; he gave a friend the last sips of water in his canteen. He spent most of his life in the wild but was a devoted family man who loved his children dearly. He was both the enthusiast who exposed the greatness of the West to the rest of the country and the West’s destroyer.