Knockemstiff, Ohio

This is the small village where Willard, Charlotte, and Arvin make their home in the early part of the narrative, and to which Arvin returns in search of redemption and release in the novel's final chapters.

The House on Mitchell Flats

This is the house just outside of Knockemstiff where Willard, Charlotte and Arvin live in the few years between Willard and Charlotte's marriage and their deaths. In the years between those deaths and Arvin's return, the house burns down. When Arvin revisits the ruins at the end of the narrative, those ruins metaphorically represent the "ruins" of the faith practiced by Willard, and how that faith has no more place in Arvin's life. He is finally able to move on.

The Prayer Clearing and the Prayer Log

A short walk through the woods from the house on Mitchell Flats there is clearing in which there...