Desert Solitaire: Anthropomorphism And Personification Essay

Anthropomorphism and Personification

In Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey is in a pursuit of seeing nature as it is, without humanly ascribed qualities (7). Although Abbey does not want to use anthropomorphism or personification, he finds that it is impossible to avoid because he sees life in the desert and writes all living things on earth are kindred (25). And if we are all kindred, then we share many of the same attributes.

At first, the author defends his position by stating that it is possible for wild animals to have feelings even though we humans do not believe they (animals) are capable (25). But in the first chapter, he writes that he descend[s] to such anthropomorphism and refers to such descriptions as absurd and ludicrous (24). The author makes no further excuses or explanations for using anthropomorphism. Mammalian qualities are given to the yellow flowers shivering in the wind (37). Theres the puzzled and suspicious doe with her fawn who are exalted to a god-like status when they are also described as madonna and child (39), which is an obvious reference to the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. The author makes a small, involuntary movement as he exhales. This unintentionally alarms the deer and they quickly vanished into the wind (39), giving the deer a supernatural-like quality. Abbey desires to speak to the deer but they are not talking (39). Their hurried disappearance references the supernatural. He then questions why he should even lead them to believe that anything manlike can be trusted (39) in the first place.

Once more Abbey seems to be reaching beyond deification into the supernatural when he describes the colorful, luminous aura (95) of the bush as it is writhing, dancing, and growing and the aura increases in brightness. Personification and surrealism are apparent through the eyes of Billy-Joe as is hallucinating after eating datura flowers. He sees the stars caught like moths in a cobweb, alive, quivering, struggling to escape and a meteor passing in the sky which glided more slowly than a ship (95).

Human emotions are applied to the rabbit and owls symbiotic relationship as the author describes the loving and affectionate feelings on the part of the owl toward his natural friend (123), the rabbit. He questions whether the same love and kindness the owl feels is also reciprocally felt by the rabbit, or if the rabbit surrenders unselfishly for the purposes of good sportsmanship (123). Abbey then answers his own question by stating that it is actually fear that is responsible for the rabbits complete surrender, not love (123). His next question suggests that there are certain laws that govern nature, and unsophisticated is the way that nature should be (123).

The song of the spadefoot toad may sound like something more appropriate for funeral music. However, Abbey proposes that these small beings are singingout of love and joylove for their own existenceand for joy in the common life (157). Their choral celebration (157), regardless of the possibility that the festivities may be short-lived, is motivated by the long awaited rain that replenishes the puddles necessary for mating and reproduction.

The author seems to decrease his use of anthropomorphism and personification when he is in the company of others, such as Roy, Viviano, Ralph Newcomb, or Bob Waterman- even though Abbey has not left the desert. His descriptive qualities become more scientific and straightforward. His focus changes from the plants, animals and the beauty of the desert to various issues within the desert park system. Included in those issues include: plans for road construction and how it will negatively affect his beloved desert land, the gradual disappearance of the desert cowboys and Indians, and the dam that will inevitably be built and will change Glen Canyon forever.

Abbey seems to have reached a conclusion by stating that there is something about the desert that human emotions cannot fully understand (302). It has been mostly overlooked by writers and artists, which is baffl[ing] to the author (302). Regardless of Abbeys several-year intimate contact (303) with the desert, he admits that there is this quality of strangeness (303). However, one thing throughout this desert journey that the author does come to realize that he is not opposed to anthropomorphism, his own descent into anthropomorphism, or his surrender to the same such anthropomorphic absurdity. Abbey discovered that he is actually opposed to anthropocentricity, which he explains is the opinion that the world exists solely for the sake of man (305). One might wonder if there could be a connection between being the authors preferred isolation and when he is preoccupied with human interaction.

Works Cited

Abbey, Edward. Desert Solitaire. Ballantine Books: New York, 1968. Print.