Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang: Novel Analysis
Essay #3
The Monkey Wrench Gang
Edward Abby’s, “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” is a proactive novel that is centered on the protection and preservation of nature in the Southwest. Taking place in the 1970’s, a time of rapid industrialization, Abby highlights the overdevelopment of the pristine environment stemming from greedy government initiatives. His rebellious characters including George Hayduke, Seldom Seen Smith, Bonnie Abzug, and Doctor Sarvis, use eco-terrorism to attempt the impossible goal of preventing “planetary industrialism” (Abbey 64). In their defense of nature, the Monkey Wrench Gang use radical, counterproductive methods to prove the importance of preservation against an overpowering human phenomenon. George Hayduke, the extremist of the gang, is a Vietnam veteran who returns to the Southwestern desert after the war and is astonished that unspoiled land he values is under attack by industrialization. Hayduke’s goal becomes vivid—“My job is to save the fucking wilderness. I don’t know anything else worth saving” (Abbey 229). Hayduke’s vision is merged with three other ecowarriors who share the same disgust of mainstream society. The others include: Seldom Smith, a wilderness guide and river boat operator, Bonnie Abzug, a New England wasp and feminist, and Doctor Sarvis, a general surgeon who enjoys vandalizing billboards. The American people “rolling along on their rubber tires in their two-ton entropy cars polluting the air we breathe, raping the earth to give their fat indolent rump-sprung American asses a free ride,” aggravate the gang (Abbey 146). But their aim is attacking things and property, not people. In this way, activism remains morally distinct from terrorism. The symbolism of destroying icons of economic growth shows the presence of a fundamental law of nature, of which the gang is aware, and of which mainstream America is ignorant. The Monkey Wrench Gang ventures out into the country and wilderness of Utah and Arizona where
The Monkey Wrench Gang
Edward Abby’s, “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” is a proactive novel that is centered on the protection and preservation of nature in the Southwest. Taking place in the 1970’s, a time of rapid industrialization, Abby highlights the overdevelopment of the pristine environment stemming from greedy government initiatives. His rebellious characters including George Hayduke, Seldom Seen Smith, Bonnie Abzug, and Doctor Sarvis, use eco-terrorism to attempt the impossible goal of preventing “planetary industrialism” (Abbey 64). In their defense of nature, the Monkey Wrench Gang use radical, counterproductive methods to prove the importance of preservation against an overpowering human phenomenon. George Hayduke, the extremist of the gang, is a Vietnam veteran who returns to the Southwestern desert after the war and is astonished that unspoiled land he values is under attack by industrialization. Hayduke’s goal becomes vivid—“My job is to save the fucking wilderness. I don’t know anything else worth saving” (Abbey 229). Hayduke’s vision is merged with three other ecowarriors who share the same disgust of mainstream society. The others include: Seldom Smith, a wilderness guide and river boat operator, Bonnie Abzug, a New England wasp and feminist, and Doctor Sarvis, a general surgeon who enjoys vandalizing billboards. The American people “rolling along on their rubber tires in their two-ton entropy cars polluting the air we breathe, raping the earth to give their fat indolent rump-sprung American asses a free ride,” aggravate the gang (Abbey 146). But their aim is attacking things and property, not people. In this way, activism remains morally distinct from terrorism. The symbolism of destroying icons of economic growth shows the presence of a fundamental law of nature, of which the gang is aware, and of which mainstream America is ignorant. The Monkey Wrench Gang ventures out into the country and wilderness of Utah and Arizona where