the cabin wielding a shotgun. The police return with reinforcements, and a shoot-out ensues. Arthur wounds a few officers, then flees, but is captured a short while later. Marion, too, is captured, when his new vehicle breaks down on a bridge, its trunk filled with whiskey. Arthur is diagnosed as insane or senile and is sent to a mental hospital, where he will likely spend the remainder of his days. Marion is sentenced to three years in prison for illegally transporting whiskey. Still oblivious to Marion's role in his father's death, John Wesley leaves Red Branch. Several years later, he returns to find the town abandoned. Themes Like much of McCarthy's works, The Orchard Keepers central themes are highly Biblical in nature: innocence, the end of days, and the relationship between fathers and sons. Both Arthur and Marion take on mentor relationships with John Wesley, acting as surrogate fathers. After Marion killed John's father, Arthur tends to the corpse, which, unbeknownst to John, is concealed in Arthur's spray pit. The dense woodlands of Red Branch, described by McCarthy in gorgeous and elaborate detail, are a kind of Eden, in which characters live in a state of ignorant bliss. This bliss is slowly eroded over the course of the novel, as violence, death, decay, and modern civilization slowly but inevitably encroach on Arthur, John Wesley, and Marion's way of life. The novel ends with John Wesley returning to Red Branch after spending several years out West, only to find the hamlet abandoned and dilapidated. Like Adam and Eve, John Wesley can never return to his idyllic place of birth; it has been for ever lost to him. Characters Kenneth Rattner is an unemployed hitchhiker who attempts to rob and kill Marion Sylder. Sylder strangles him to death and dumps his corpse in Arthur's spray pit. John Wesley Rattner is Kenneth Rattner's son. Throughout most of the novel, John Wesley is approximately fourteen years old. No physical description of him is ever given, but McCarthy alludes that he lives alone with his mother. John Wesley is loyal, highly independent, and good natured. Marion Sylder is an outlaw and bootlegger who killed Rattner in self-defence. Sylder is married, but his relationship with his wife is never expanded upon. Arthur Ownby, also referred to as "The Old Man" and "Uncle Ather", is a hermit who lives alone with his dog in the wilderness. He