Outer Dark

Outer Dark contains numerous biblical allusions, including the title, which refers to the outer darkness (hell) referenced in the Gospel of Matthew. These allusions don’t convey a moral lesson; instead, McCarthy transposes biblical parables into a world of cosmic indifference, showing how these stories change when God is absent.

McCarthy’s world voids these parables of their biblical meaning. This happens in the chapter with Culla and the hog drovers, which alludes to Matthew 8: 28-33. Jesus arrives in the gentile country of Gergesenes, whereupon he exorcizes two possessed men, sending the demons into a herd of swine that stampedes off a cliff into the sea. The people of Gergesenes beg Jesus to leave so that he won’t destroy more valuable livestock. In this chapter of Outer Dark, Culla is again transposed into the Bible, here in the place of Jesus, instead of Cain. Like the people of Gergesenes, the drovers turn on Culla because he destroys their livestock. However, this chapter doesn’t adhere to a strict retelling of the New Testament story; instead, it incorporates elements of the Old Testament, framing the stampede as an act of divine punishment. Amidst the stampede, the drovers transform into the exorcized demons of Matthew 8:32: “the drovers […] had begun to assume satanic looks with their staves and wild eyes as if they were no true swineherds but disciples of darkness” (222). In McCarthy’s version of Matthew 8, the demons aren’t exorcized by the newly arrived stranger (Jesus); instead, the newly arrived stranger (Culla) is himself demonic, his presence possessing the drovers to herd their swine to their deaths. A story about triumph of God becomes a story about the triumph of Satan. At least, this is the story the reverend and the drovers latch onto, accusing Culla of being “plumb eat up with the devil” (227). In reality, there is no reason for the deaths of Vernon and the hogs; Culla doesn’t provoke the stampede, as they argue. In Matthew 8, the destruction of the hogs results from the destruction of the demons. Transposed into Outer Dark, this causal link vanishes, leaving only meaningless mass death.