41 pages • 1 hour read
Edward AbbeyDesert Solitaire
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1968A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Gopher Snakes
The gopher snakes that Abbey meets are a symbol of the natural world’s inhuman, unfathomable intelligence, as well as the mysterious, unknowable intentions of nonhuman animals. Abbey wonders if the gopher snakes are really there to protect and befriend him. He senses their presence even after they are gone, as he continues to see fewer rattlesnakes and fewer mice in and about his trailer house home. The gopher snakes, which pose him no harm, and which he tries to come close to, represent for him the benevolence with which nature occasionally expresses itself. The fact that they do not let him come very close, but slither away from him, symbolizes the fact that an unbridgeable distance must remain between himself and the mysterious elements of nature with which he yearns to commune.
Moon Eye the Horse
Moon Eye the horse symbolizes, in a sense, nature gone wrong. This wayward animal is the result of unfortunate circumstances, both natural and human-caused. The birth defect in Moon Eye’s eye was created by nature, but Moon Eye’s agitated and fearful disposition was, we can infer, at least partially caused by the overwork that Roy Scobie subjected the horse to. Here again, Abbey’s inability to come close to the animal symbolizes the essential inaccessibility of the deep natural world that Abbey wants to know far more intimately than any human is truly capable of.
The Sun
Abbey often returns to discussion of the sun, and how, though it is the ultimate life-giving force, it is also the most deadly. All the creatures of the desert–save for the birds of prey–must hide from the sun when it is most intense at midday, particularly during the heart of the summer. The sun acts as a motif in the book, indicating most often the merciless face of nature, rather than nature’s softer aspects.
Storms
Though Abbey tells us that storms are very rare in the desert, he describes the occurrence of at least three of them, all of which have very significant consequences (or potentially very significant consequences) for human beings. Thus, the storms are a motif suggesting nature’s inherent unpredictability and fierceness.
Thirst
The motif of thirst appears often, on every ambitious foray of Abbey’s into remote regions and on almost every hike. No matter whether he remembers his canteen or no, he may be separated from it, or he may drain it, and it seems he always has to search for natural sources of drinkable water and/or suffer mightily from thirst. This motif seems to suggest both the limits of human ingenuity (i.e. the canteen) and the intractable, unavoidable harshness of the desert, as well the simple animal vulnerability that most modern humans are typically shielded from. At one point, Abbey states that after a certain amount of time in the desert, a person–like the animals–can sense the presence of water. Clearly, it is thirst itself that drives this instinct; thus, thirst is both an ever-present threat and a survival mechanism.
Birdsong and Other Forms of Nature’s Music
Abbey often returns to the motif of birdsong, and sometimes frog song and other natural music. Save for the howling of the coyotes, he always finds nature’s music transcendentally pleasurable and reassuring to his spirit. In a sense, this music represents nature in its most companionable aspect. Abbey may never know the inner life of the natural world to the extent that he craves, but by allowing himself to “sink in” to its rhythms through the enjoyment of its music, he attains perhaps his most profound communion with nature.
