“Then I Wouldn’t be Unneighborly Neither”: A Reading of Cormac McCarthy’s The Orchard Keeper in Light of the Influence of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Ethan Brand”

Abstract

ABSTRACT Archival evidence in an early manuscript of Cormac McCarthy’s The Orchard Keeper reveals that not only Hawthorne in general, but also Hawthorne’s tale “Ethan Brand” in particular, was in McCarthy’s mind during the process of composition. This essay provides a reading of The Orchard Keeper that takes into account the influence of Hawthorne’s accomplished short story. Both Hawthorne’s classic tale and McCarthy’s debut novel are preoccupied with the question of technological progress and its toll on the natural world and human community, an estimate of poor moral character as defined by acts of unneighborliness and hard-heartedness against others, and a measure of upright moral character as defined by neighborliness, wholeheartedness, and a reverence for nature. Understanding McCarthy’s debt to Hawthorne helps readers to appreciate anew the themes and moral concerns of his first and perhaps most underappreciated novel.