EWRT 1C Class 43OUTER DARK

AGENDA

Outer DarkTheory?

Group Discussion

Style and Themes

Q: Is the complexity of Cormack McCarthy’s style of writing in Outer Dark unique or pretentious?

Q: Why are so many characters introduced nameless?

Q: Is there redemption in the story?

QHQ: Symbols and Allusions Q: What does the baby symbolize? What are some of the religious

allusions in the story? Q: What are some Biblical parallels

that emphasizes the idea of “the outer dark” in this story?

Q: Why is incest so taboo and how is that made evident in the story?

Rinthy and Culla

What does Rinthy represent? What does Culla represent? Q: Why doesn’t Culla want a

midnight woman when Rinthy wants one?

Q: How deeply do the characters lie to each other and themselves? Is this lying necessary?

QHQs: The Three Men

Q: Who are the three marauders? What is their function in the story?

Q: How can/does the above passage represent the mental states of the characters in the novel?

Chickens had so scratched the soil from the yard that knobs and knees of treeroots stood everywhere in grotesque conguration up out of the earth like some gathering of the mad laid suddenly bare in all their writhen attitudes of pain. She waited. It was an old woman spoke to her:I’ve not been a-hoein. This here is just to kill snakes with.She nodded.I don’t ast nobody’s say so for what all I do but I’d not have ye to think I’d been a-hoein.Yes, she said.I don’t hold with breakin the sabbath and don’t care to associate with them that does.It ain’t sunday, she said.It’s what?It ain’t sunday today, she said.

Culla is met with accusations at every turn as a reflection of his tormented psychological state.

“Nightfall found him crouched in a thicket, waiting. With full dark he came forth, a solitary traveler going south. He walked all night. Not even a dog spoke him down that harsh road” (90).

The reason that I chose this quote was because of the element of mystery it highlights for readers about the background of its two main characters and another interesting characteristic about Culla Holme.

“I ain’t runnin from nowheres. No? You ain’t? Where you from? I

never ast you that did I? I come from down on the Chicken

River … Before that then? Where did you live before?

I come from downstate,” (73).

Q: What are the key differences in the ways Rinthy and Culla are treated during their separate journeys due to their gender? “To drink here? Just outside. You lack

two pennies, the clerk said with a small malignant smile. … Course if you ain’t got it you could drink it in here.” (pg 58-59)

“I wonder could I get a drink of water from ye, she said. … Get all ye want, he said. Just set it back when you’re done.” (pg 85)