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.
Essay Topics
Abbey writes, “There will be other readers, I hope, who share my basic assumption that wilderness is a necessary part of civilization […]” (58). Do you agree that civilization needs wilderness? Why, or why not?
Is Edward Abbey an ethical person? How so? How not so?
Of all the secondary figures in the book, whom do you suppose Abbey might describe as his “best friend,” and why? What makes this person seem “closer” with Abbey than any of the others? Is this person the most like Abbey, of those figures mentioned?
How would you characterize Abbey’s relationships with the various animals who populate the desert around him? Is Abbey a “good neighbor” to the other desert dwellers in his midst? How so? How not so?
What evidence does Abbey offer in the book to support his belief that all creatures on the Earth are kindred spirits?
How might this memoir be different were it written by a woman, rather than a man?
Why do you think Abbey conceives his particular, and sometimes peculiar, likes and dislikes for certain creatures? Why, for example, does he prefer scorpions to ants?
Present a counterargument to Abbey’s thesis that human culture is devouring and despoiling the wilderness, and that this is a tragedy for all concerned.
Does Edward Abbey change much through the course of the book? In what ways do you see his character and attitude evolving?
Abbey speaks at great length about–and sometimes directly to–the wilderness. He has a lengthy one-way conversation, for example, with Moon Eye the horse. If the creatures of the wilderness could talk back to him, what might they say to him, and why?
