Introduction
In the modern age of technological progress, people begin to puzzle about their place in the environment and the relation of a contemporary human being to the nature. It seems like the link between a person and natural environment is lost, yet still despite the progress, humans try to connect to nature. There is a radical difference between the life in a modern city and in wilderness, which sometimes attracts adventurers and those who try to escape the civilization. There are radical examples, like Chris McCandless, who has chosen alienation from the society in order to live in wilderness (Krakauer 19). While this story has a tragic ending, there are people who feel that at least temporary alienation may help a person to reinvent herself or himself. The best example is Cheryl Strayed, who had to estrange from the world due to the traumatizing experience (Strayed 36). At the same time, it is quite difficult to state if the alienation and life in wilderness may resolve the problems of the modern civilization. Edward Abby’s book also concerns the topic of a wilderness space and the role of a human in it, where the author proposes a dualistic view towards this issue emphasizing the nature’s cruelty and people’s loss of their connection to wilderness.
Analysis
Edward Abby managed to collect and synthesize his experience and knowledge obtained during the work in the Arches National Monument Park that served as the basis for his book “Desert Solitaire”. While being an environmentalist and having substantial knowledge in biology, Abby not only described flora and fauna of the Park, but also included his philosophical ideas and thoughts regarding humans, wilderness, civilization, and life in general.
At the same time, the statements proposed by the author are not straightforward, as they show certain ambivalence in views towards the role of wilderness in the life of humans. From one point of view, Abby insists that humans alienated themselves from the wilderness and nature in general; from the other hand, the author notices that the desert is cruel and indifferent to humans and it will exist no matter if people are alive or dead. Particularly, he claims that “the desert reveals itself nakedly and cruelly, with no meaning but its own existence” (Abby 71). Such approach to wilderness shows that the author both recognizes his place in the nature and fears that he, as a person, does not have a meaning in global sense.
Masculinity
It is quite a masculine approach to perceiving nature and its purpose. Abby’s distress about the nature’s cruelty and indifference relates to his colonialist intention to conquer the land and make it of use. While the author notices that the wilderness cannot be adapted to the needs of humans, he considers it to be cruel and indifferent. Abby describes the desert with the help of meticulous epithets, but at the same time, he compares it to the void, “What does it mean? It means nothing. It is as it is and has no need for meaning” (Abby 109). This is one of the illustrations of Abby’s vision of the wilderness and its place in natural order. His individualistic and at some point egotistic approach to the desert extradites his masculine conceptualization regarding environment and the place of human in it.
Simultaneously, the author is very concerned about the indifference of modern people to nature and their expropriation of its resources. He also criticizes the Western way of doing business, as according to the author, the companies do not take into account the importance of nature and the need to use its resources more sustainably. Abby insists that “speculation was the big thing; and the money poured in from all over the United States from those persons, always numerous in our society, eager to profit from the labor of others, anxious to harvest what they had not sown” (Abby 35). Here, the author criticizes the idea of using resources and people to pursue financial profits. The scholar contrasts the modern developed world with the wilderness and nature. At some point, Abby refers to the topic of loss of the major natural resources due to human activity that was not well-thought, according to the author. Here, he uses the environmentalist point of view in order to confront the values of the modern civilization by claiming that the destruction of the wilderness will lead to the dawn of the humanity.
Such an approach is quite dualistic and ambivalent, as two different ideas expressed by Abby cannot find consensus. His criticism of humanity for losing its touch with the wilderness does not coincide with his perception of wilderness as cruel emptiness. Abby goes on, “I want to be able to look at and into a juniper tree, a piece of quartz, a vulture, a spider, and see it as it is in itself, devoid of all humanly ascribed qualities, to meet Godeven if it means risking everything human in myself” (Abby 7). It has to be noted that this approach to nature and humanity is also masculine and egotistic. Abby emphasizes that he would like to observe the nature and wilderness without the presence of humans, yet he is human himself, which is quite contradicting. By criticizing the civilization, the author forgets that he is the part of the same civilization and environment, which makes him and other humans interconnected.
Settler Colonialism
This perception of the wilderness and humanity roots in the individualism and the emphasis Western civilization makes on individual rather than the group. Abby’s approach is completely masculine and individualistic, as he aims to change both the human’s approach to wilderness and vice versa. Henry D. Thoreau expressed the similar opinion concerning the connection between a human and wilderness, yet claiming that life in civilization and in the wild have different merits. For instance, he implies that staying indoors makes people softer and smoother, while being in wilderness will temper individual’s character (Thoreau). Abby do not see the difference and advantages between living in the city and in the wild. At the same time, he admits that the wilderness will not be soft with a human who does not get used to such kind of life. It is possible to say that both Abby and Thoreau points to the same idea by claiming that wilderness can either break or temper a person. As it was mentioned earlier, in the case of Chris McCandless, wilderness managed to break him due to the lack of necessary knowledge and awareness of living in the wild (Krakauer 69). Abby expresses the similar opinion regarding the benefits of civilization by criticizing their values.
It is quite controversial, but Abby manages to both attack the ideas of settler colonialism and admit that wilderness does not intent to help the humanity. Simultaneously, the author still remains to be the part of the colonialist society, as he does not propose any countermeasures or alternative ways to live for humans. Evelyn Glenn emphasizes that the main purpose of settler colonialism is to conquer the land in order to settle permanently and develop new communities (Glenn 57). Abby denies the need to render habitable new lands by cutting them from wilderness. It seems like for him, humans no more than aliens in the wild due to their unpreparedness for the life in this part of the land. The author himself is somehow alienated from the wilderness, despite being environmentalist and obtaining massive knowledge about nature. He continues to disconnect a human from environment, by insisting that “I am almost prepared to believe that this sweet virginal primitive land would be grateful for my departure and the absence of the tourist, will breath metaphorically a collective sigh of relief when we are all and finally gone” (Abby 138). At this point, the criticism of the estrangement of people from wilderness makes no sense.
In a lot of cases, especially in the views of environmentalists, there is a disconnection between the nature and humans. There is an idea that settling down and conquering wild lands affects negatively the environment, which it is according to numerous studies; simultaneously, human nature and a specific culture are not always taken into account. Abby criticizes the American, and possibly Western culture in general, due to its colonialism and the need to settle down instead of using the land sustainably. It is a paradoxical views, as the knowledge and experience obtained by Abby one way or another belong to the well-developed Western civilization. As the example of Chris McCandles showed, philosophy is not enough for surviving in the wild. At the same time, Krakauer emphasizes that a person has to lose inclination for security and use a helter-skelter style to be nomadic rather than settled (Krakauer 74). The admiration both Abby and Krakauer have towards wilderness is embodied, as they think, in the simplicity of life in the wild comparing to the complicated existence in the Western civilization.
However, as Abby noticed closer to the end of the book, wilderness is cruel and harsh. It does not excuse the weakness and any mistake can cost life. Life in the settlements minimizes these risks, as since the very beginning people managed to organize in groups only out of practicality. Living in the wilderness alone is particularly difficult and dangerous for the modern people, which was witnessed by McCandless. Abby does not supports the idea of living in the wilderness, as he expressed several times in the book that the presence of humans in wilderness will destroy it. At the same time, the author admits the misunderstanding of the interconnected existing between individual and wilderness. Demos admitted that in order to resolve the problem existing between the society and environment, it is necessary to “decolonize” it by cancelling the subject-object relation between people and the environment (Demos). Abby points to the same direction by admitting that if humans do not colonize desert, it will remain the same, which will preserve the resources of nature.
Conclusion
Overall, the book is constructed as an adventurous journey that aimed to describe the personal experience of the author. At the same time, “Desert Solitaire” contains a wide array of the philosophical ideas that relate to environmentalism and anti-colonialism by emphasizing the beauty of wilderness and faulty relationship humans have towards it. Again, the book is quite dualistic in terms of its approach to the problem of colonizing the wilderness and intrusion of humans into the virgin flora and fauna. At the same time, the thoughts expressed by Abby do not provide a solution to the problem and tend to criticize rather than propose constructive alternatives. Abby does not notice that his position towards nature contains the ideas of individualism and masculinity, which reflect the approach to environment and wilderness of the entire Western society. He describes his individual masculine journeys that celebrate the solitude and physical strength. Yet, Abby manages to find imperfections in wilderness and himself failing to see his ambivalent vision towards environment and the role of humans in it.
In general, the book is quite informative in terms of the practical experience in the desert and the reflections on life in the wild. Abby’s knowledge of biology is also important in his observation of life in desert as well as its comparison with the life in the civilization. It seems like, not only Abby, but a lot of environmentalists contrast the humanity with the wilderness, cutting the cord between people and environment. Simultaneously, they criticize humans for their inability to see the beauty of the wilderness and its value. However, a lot of them, including Abby, forget that humans are and have always been the part of the Earth, despite the culture, origins, and the type of civilization. While the modern society with its emphasis on the technologies forget about the environment, it is possible to claim that the benefits of the civilization remain the part of the natural order and wilderness as well.
Works Cited
Abby, Edward. Desert Solitaire. New York, NY: Rosetta Books, 1968. Print
Demos, Terrence J. Decolonizing Nature: Making the World Matter. Social Text Journal. 8 Mar. 2015. Web. 30 Apr. 2016.
Glenn, Evelyn N. Settler Colonialism as Structure: A Framework for Comparative Studies of U.S. Race and Gender Formation. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 1.1 (2015): 54-74.
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wid. New York, NY: Pan, 2007. Print
Strayed, Cheryl. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 2013. Print
Thoreau, Henry D. Walking. The Atlantic. June 1862. Web. 30 Apr. 2016.
