certain) on a small farm. The man insists she speak to him, but she says she does not have anything to say. In the middle of the night, she steals away from the farm and the “dead and loveless house,” going back to the road. Finally, she comes upon the clearing where her child’s body has been burned, along with the tinker’s cart, and where the tinker’s body hangs in a tree. She lingers in the clearing, and goes to sleep as night falls. Ending Years later, Culla talks to a blind man who tells him of the blessings of being blind, and that he prays for what he needs. Culla later watches the blind man walking towards a swamp, which for him means certain death. The novel ends with Culla thinking "Someone should tell a blind man before setting him out that way". Characters Culla Holme – the main male character, brother and former lover of Rinthy Holme Rinthy Holme – the main female character, sister and former lover of Culla Holme The Tinker The unnamed child – abandoned, and later murdered child of Rinthy and Culla Holme Major themes Consequences of sin In his second novel, McCarthy moved away from the naturalistic conventions of The Orchard Keeper. A number of writing conventions which were present in his first novel are here lacking: a distinct chronology, allusions to the modern world beyond the mountain culture, or forays into frontier and absurdist comedy. Instead, McCarthy introduces a Calvinistic conception of sin and retribution, which creates a cruel and bleak world in contrast to a world in the original state of innocence. The state of innocence is here present in the familial isolation, surrounded by nature, which was desecrated by incest. The ugliness of the sin is underscored by the ugliness of the child found at the end of the novel, while the sexual nature of the siblings' sin is underscored by the tinker who found the child, as he is a lecherous and deformed seller of supplies and pornography. Culla further commits a double sin of attempted infanticide. The forces of retribution are present in the trio of murderous men, McCarthy's grotesque equivalent of the Erinyes (or Furies, or Eumenides) of Greek myth. However, cosmic retribution in Outer Dark does not simply punish those who have committed a sin, it punishes those who are innocent and guilty alike. Nihilism Ethical