Outer Dark
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Outer Dark is U.S. novelist Cormac McCarthy's second novel, published in 1968. The time and setting are nebulous, but can be assumed to be somewhere in the Southern United States, sometime around the turn of the twentieth century. The novel tells of a woman (Rinthy) who bears her brother's baby. The brother, Culla, leaves the nameless infant in the woods to die, but he tells his sister that the newborn died of natural causes and had to be buried. Rinthy discovers this lie, and decides to set out and find the baby for herself.
Meanwhile, the baby has been discovered in the woods and taken by a nameless Tinker.
Culla strikes out aimlessly across the country attempting to escape the circumstances that have enshrouded him and forget his sins. Rinthy, despite her post-labor state, tries in vain to track down the Tinker. The siblings' personalities and modes of behavior are very similar but their experiences differ greatly.
[edit] Culla's Journey
After abandoning his sister upon her discovery of the fake grave he created in the woods, Culla sets off walking from town to town looking for work. The attitudes of the country people he encounters are wary and suspicious. When calamity strikes a community all eyes turn to him, no matter how remote the chances are that he was involved in any way. Citizens and strangers accuse him of theft, murder, trespassing, and even inciting a herd of hogs to riot. No matter where he journeys or who he interacts with it ends tragically. It seems he cannot outdistance the punishment for his original sin.
[edit] Rinthy's Journey
Rinthy is taken in and helped by nearly everyone she meets. She usually asks for mere cups of water and winds up with room and board and invitations to stay as long as she pleases. Although her demeanor and style of communicating are similar to her brother's, she is able to evade the few instances of trouble presented her. Only when she catches up to the Tinker and he learns the truth about her pregnancy does she receive cruel treatment.
[edit] Tone and Themes
McCarthy colors his language in dark tones, utilizing archaic language and biblical imagery to give the reader a feeling of ever present danger and impending punishment. In between the narratives of Culla and Rinthy, three nameless characters stalk the countryside killing at random, usually not depicted but insinuated by the wake of hanged bodies in their path. At first their killing seems aimless, but further into the novel a pattern emerges that reveals the victims are those that have come across Culla's path. Rinthy never runs into them physically but sees the aftermath of their grim work. Her brother enters the shadowy realm of their campfire twice, and each time there is a tangible feeling that his death is close at hand, but each time they leave him to his own ends. It isn't clear whether they actually exist or they are an invisible arm of Culla's own deadly psyche.
The laconic lyricism and stark beauty of McCarthy's style is again pronounced in this early novel that portends the coming of a great voice in American letters.
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