Ryan Cooley
Seminar in Composition
Dr. Adam Johns
September 2, 2014
Desert Solitaire: “Rocks”
A
continuous theme throughout Abbey’s Desert Solitaire is nature versus
man. Not necessarily a survival story, instead the industrialization of
nature. Abbey, very pro-environment one
could easily say, goes about his theme in many a ways. Most blatantly, in the
chapter “Polemic: Industrial Tourism and the National Parks,” in which he
argues the sheer nature of any tampering with the national park system and even
goes as far as to lay out a solution to the “gradual destruction” (pg.57,
Abbey) of the national park system. Whereas the argument of ‘Rocks’ was more of
a metaphor for the same theme and was purposed to accomplish the same appeals
to the reader as in ‘Polemic’ but in a smaller scale.
Where
Abbey goes all in, in his attempt to scrutinize the movement of corporate
America’s tampering with national parks in ‘Polemic,’ he seems to slow down and
take a breath with the story of the Husk family in ‘Rocks.’ This change of narrative,
I believe is out to give more relation between the reader and the book, in
turn, a subtle rhetorical tool that shines in what can be a slow autobiography.
Though a short story, the Husk story hooks the reader with a grounded premise
and dynamic characters of Albert Husk and Mr. Graham. Their friendship and
partnership is one that is very relatable to a large audience and their goal of
wealth is one that everyone shares.
As we are
introduced the characters to the story, readers can make a quick connection to
the Husk family, as they seem to be poster-children for an average family trying
to live ‘the American dream’ at least. Mr. Graham represents, in today’s
standards, somewhat of a young, rich entrepreneur, on the rise in this booming
uranium business. Even from the get-go of the story a small detail can get
overlooked, “all the children took to Mr. Graham at once except for Billy-Joe”
(pg. 69, Abbey), while the other two Husk children are just filler in the story
it is this detail the gives a clue into some importance to the little boy. This
one small detail would be foreshadowing for the true purpose of the characters
and story in the end.
When
the plot begins to unwind it becomes easily apparent that some of the
characters, like industrialists in ‘Polemic,’ have lost sight of main factors. In
the case of Husk, he loses the realization that he is doing this work for his
family but it quickly becomes and obsession and he grows farther away from his
wife and kids. During his rant in ‘Polemic,’ Abbey notes that “it is apparent,
then, that we cannot decide the question of development versus preservation”
(pg.48, Abbey), in short he making a claim that the national park system is in
existence to give a way for people to explore but instead of letting people do
just that, the government needs to shove some roads and new jobs. Basically,
fix a problem that is not actually there.
Although it is not
blatant corporate versus nature, the Husk story shows how far greed and
obsession can take a man or in this case two. Where, Husk and Graham were the
corporations and money makers in this story. As a result of their incompetence,
came Billy-Joe – the national parks; who becomes the survival story that Abbey
never wanted. These two chapters present the same argument, “industrial tourism
is a threat to the national parks” (pg.51, Abbey), in the form of literal
versus rhetorical to the purpose of the novel as a whole.
Works Cited:
Abbey, Edward. Desert
Solitaire; a Season in the Wilderness. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968. Print
The parallels you draw between “Polemic: Industrial Tourism and The National Parks” and “Rocks” are very interesting. They both are very different chapters but the idea you had to relate the two together is brilliant. The problem is, you had that idea mainly in the last paragraph of your essay. You cite parallels between the two chapters throughout the first four paragraphs, but that is all. The reader sees the parallels between the two chapters and their common goal at proving a point, but you only start to elaborate on that great idea in the last paragraph. The first four paragraphs, while accurately depicting what went on in the book, are too summary based. Use examples from the book without summarizing too much and then give commentary and there you have a great essay. However much summary there was, there was also a few treasures of relationships you pointed out between the chapters that were excellent. You are very clever to relate Billy Joe and the national parks as a symbol of the same thing, which is something I had not considered. I missed also in my reading that Billy Joe was the only child to not take to Graham, which you also pointed out. I also agree that Abbey is in a fight against the exploitation of nature and that these two chapters are relatable in that sense. Your essay had a good direction and thesis, but I would recommend moving that thesis to much sooner in the essay and maybe cutting out all the summary fluff you have in the first few paragraphs.The first few sentences of paragraph five are a great ideas for an essay, now if you revise this, build the whole essay around that.
ReplyDeleteCritique By: Joe Weidman
I already said most of what I had to say, but I'll reiterate a couple of the main points. The argument is actually quite interesting, but you struggle to make it quickly and clearly, and then to provide evidence for it. What is most dramatically and importantly missing is detailed evidence from the text of "Rocks" - you needed to work through, in details, the whys and the hows of how this metaphor emerges. Remember, your job isn't just to have an interesting idea - its to convince us of the interesting idea.
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