The Unanswered Question: Chapter Analysis

Charles Ives’ “The Unanswered Question” connects to the first chapter in Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire by having a similar tone and questioning the eternal existence that surrounds us. Both Abbey’s first chapter and Ives’ musical piece share a beautiful yet intimidating status. In the book, Abbey can use words to describe some intangible feelings and thoughts, but in the composition the sounds from the strings, trumpet and woodwinds create the picture and feelings. These three parts of “The Unanswered Question” each hold a different meaning to ask a question about eternal existence, and in both, it is easy to visualize what is happening because both are so abstract. Both the chapter written by Abbey and the piece composed by Ives are beautiful yet intimidating. In

The woodwinds start off answering softly, then after a few questions, the woodwinds start to become agitated with the question and their answer becomes more threatening. One listening can tell because the melody coming from the woodwinds gets louder and faster each time; it sounds as if the woodwinds are “fighting” with each other. The more the trumpet asks the question, the more the woodwinds mock the trumpet and threaten to not ask again. When the final question is asked, the woodwinds never answer. The fighting and mocking of the woodwinds resonates with Abbey’s ominous thoughts. In “The First Morning”, Abbey states “..of the cultural apparatus but also to confront, immediately and directly if it's possible, the bare bones of existence, the elemental and fundamental, the bedrock which sustains us.” (6). Bedrock is known as the base level; one can only go up from bedrock. Abbey craves to dive deeper into existence and culture without any other considerations. The eternal question can be anything, but related to Abbey’s perspective, it asks about human