This doesn't have the same meat to it that Mccarthy's other dramatic works do. The Gardener's Son and the Stonemason are bother informed by this really keen sense of place, but the sunset limited has this enforced sort of anonymity to it. Which makes sense given its stripped down parable-ish nature. But that's also what makes it more jarring and gives it it's dark edge. White's last two monologues are probably among the bleakest things Mccarthy's ever written. Even The Road, with it's obvious apocalypticism, doesn't feel as outright brutal as the end of The Sunset Limited. Goes to show you don't need a poetic vision to create a howling, nihilistic void. All you need are two people talking.