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Desert Solitaire By Edward Abbey Summary

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Many people assume deserts are just full of sand, cacti, and a dry place that lacks water. Although some of those may be true, the desert doesn't completely lack life or beauty as we observe in Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. In this excerpt by Edward Abbey, he emphasizes the connectivity of the human experience coexisting parallel with nature by attaching human experiences to animals, describing the various inhabitants and scenery, and comparing the features of the desert with those who benefit from them. First, Abbey utilizes certain words, actions, and habits in his writing that are human-like, even when referring to non-humans. He includes diction that talks about the perseverance they have and their range of emotions and feelings, “these small beings are …show more content…

He intently mentions the different species of all of the inhabitants for example “four-winged dragonflies in green, blue, scarlet, and gold” and he describes the strength that certain plants have within the desert “few are too hot or too briny or too poisonous to support life” (Abbey, 1968). Listing the different species adds extra emphasis on the wealth of the desert itself as well as the background of the animals. His detail about the animals brings them to life and paints a picture of vitality. His representations of numerous plants and animals offer a vision of multiplicity inside of the desert. He romanticizes the desert by enhancing the individualism and perplexity that's held within the desert environment. This is exercised in order to provide a reason for why it's so necessary to preserve this in society and not ruin it with modern humanity. Humans and those in the desert environment can coexist but it's necessary for them to keep in mind how abundance can be separate, humans having their modern abundance and those of the vast environment can have their

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Lost in limbo, these spirits cannot rest without justice. With no place to go, their ghostly presence can be felt in the darkest shadows of the desert. And their hungry gaze void of life, is fixated on the only place they've ever called home, the oasis.

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One main idea of landscape architecture is to persuade people to interact with nature and to enjoy and help it, not to destroy or harm it. Nature is as much as part of this world as humans are; without nature or the wilderness there would be no society. Leopold states, “Wilderness is the raw material out of which man has hammered the artifact called civilization” (264). Human grew out of nature. In the essay “Wilderness” Aldo Leopold talks about nature as if it is a masterpiece painted by the earth or as if it is an ancient artifact in a famous museum.

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But, nature does not exclude humans, human excludes themselves from nature. Within the “mists of [the] chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand and one items to be allowed for”(277). He uses clouds and storms and quicksands to convey that civilized life includes the same negativity included in the connotation of those conditions, but nonetheless, those too are apart of nature. The purpose of utilizing imagery is so evoke images people already have to connect with them on that level to make them understand that they must find a harmony and balance in the world. So, in order to restore order within one’s individual life, one must defy the social norms that distance themselves from nature to find harmony with it.

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To begin, with the difference of human and nature in "Last Child" by Louv, the device of an analogy is demonstrated. We often compare ourselves with nature, but we are yet to realize that we really cannot do that. We are no where in comparison with nature so for us to compare ourselves to it is a disgrace to nature. In this article we are comparing nature to a waste of space, because of the way that we use nature. We use "ads" for our own luxuries to take up the space that we use that is also called nature.

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In Edward Abbey writings he talks his descriptive encounters with nature in the deserts mostly about the snakes that he is watching. Abbey has a love for the deserts and this is why he writes about “The Serpents of Paradise”. In this story he used a lot of detail to make it feel like you know what is constantly going on, it almost felt like I was their and could imagine in my mind every moment I read. The way Abbey writes only makes me want to just keep reading. Abbey uses his senses to describe what he is seeing like the greasy wings of the ravens and what they sound like pretending to talk to him.

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