Desert Solititaire Critical Analysis

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Desert Solitaire aims to draw attention to the activities of a man voluntarily isolated in nature. It seeks to identify the strife that Abbey faces with modern day human’s treatment of his nature. As such, the argument that Abbey poses in one his earlier chapters Rocks is, that the Modern Day man is destructive and cannot be trusted to preserve nature as is. In the initial chapters of Desert Solitaire, it is crystal clear that Abbey has formed his own concrete assumption that mankind is out to destroy what god has put on this Earth. “Men come and go, cities rise and fall, whole civilizations appear and disappear—the earth remains, slightly modified.” Abbey’s style profuse with descriptive literary devices exemplifies the reverence he displays …show more content…

He is unable to understand why they can’t leave nature alone. His frustration stems from the fact that so much valuable land is being destroyed, to accommodate the ways of the lazy. It seems as though he believes that people who are unwilling to enjoy nature as is don’t deserve to experience it at all. He’s indirectly conveying the idea that humans who destroy nature are destroying themselves, as nature is only a mechanism that aids the society. In Desert Solitaire Abbey reminds the audience, of any age and year of the significance of the wild, enlightening and cautioning the human population into consciousness and liability through the use of isolation as material to ponder upon and presenting judgments to aid sheltering of the nature he …show more content…

However contrary to many critiques of author’s goal Abbey made his intention in writing Desert Solitaire quite clear in his introduction. He says: "Do not jump into your automobile next June and rush out ... to see some of that which I have attempted to evoke ...Most of what I write about in this book is already gone or going under fast, This is not a travel guide but an elegy. A memorial. You 're holding a tombstone in your hands. A bloody rock." Abbey accentuates his overall idea, topic, goal is to praise that which was--that which came before tourist-attracting changes--so that it may be reminisced in its natural magnificent

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