Hard Reckoning: Gone Summary

The Mulvaney family, minus Patrick, takes a drive up High Point Road. They drive past the farms and find a secluded place to stop. Mike Jr. and Judd poor out the ashes of Michael John Mulvaney, Sr., and the whole family watch them scatter on the wind.

Hard Reckoning: Gone Analysis

The very name of this chapter is the same as the chapter in which Marianne is sent away, and the downfall of the Mulvaney family began. Perhaps by naming the chapter the same, Oates is trying to tell the reader that all the bad is gone now. A full circle has been made, and it is time to move on. It is symbolic of death and rebirth, of the rebirth of the Mulvaney family, or, at least its survivors.