8/30/2014 Outer Dark - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Dark 1/2
First edition (Random House)
Outer Dark
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Outer Dark is the second novel by U.S. writer Cormac McCarthy,
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.
Contents
1 Plot
2 Culla's journey
3 Rinthy's journey
4 References
Plot
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.
Outer Dark was made into an independent film directed by Stephen Imwalle with Azel James playing the role of
Culla and Jamie Dunne playing Rinthy.
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.
Rinthy's journey
8/30/2014 Outer Dark - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Dark 2/2
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.
References
Davenport, G., Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy, New York Times Book Review, Sep 1968
(http://www.nytimes.com/1968/09/29/books/mccarthy-outer.html)
Geddes, Dan, McCarthys Outer Dark: Existentialist Darkness As Mood, The Satirist, Sep 1999
(http://www.thesatirist.com/books/OuterDark.html)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Outer_Dark&oldid=620653620"
Categories: 1968 novels 20th-century American novels Novels by Cormac McCarthy
Southern United States in fiction Random House books
This page was last modified on 10 August 2014 at 16:32.
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