Abbey is a beautiful
writer. He paints a picture for the
reader by not telling us about the desert but showing us the “the voice of the
desert rising to a demented howl and blotting out sky and sun behind yellow clouds
of dust, sand, confusion, embattled birds, last year’s scrub-oak leaves,
pollen, the husks of locusts, bark of juniper . . .” I have never been to the desert, but Abbey
knows exactly how to make his words jump off the page and pull the reader into
this Hellish, magnificent place. He sees a paradise of
life and beauty within the dead land "Life not crowded upon life as in
other places but scattered abroad in sparseness and simplicity, with a generous
gift of space for each herb and bush and tree, each stem of grass, so that the
living organism stands out bold and brave and vivid against the lifeless sand
and barren rock.” Abbey is completely blow away by the vast landscape that lays
before him bewildered by the complete diversity in the environment and the
species that live there.
There is such a
wonderment experienced by the Abbey he loves the park that he watches over. Every
morning he watched the bird sign their song. Maybe to mate maybe to not be lonely.
But when it comes to the snakes he’s baffled by them. At one point there is a wedge
head under his trailer right between his heals. And even he had the ability to
kill he would hesitate Abbey even says “I’d rather kill a man than a snake.” Showing
his attachment to nature. A couple days later he see to gopher snake start to
perform a dance which strongly resembles one done by lovers. The ranger slowly
crawls toward them watching their every move their winding and unwinding. He watches
from a snake’s-eye level as the two gopher snakes put on a performance for
him. He is not afraid to get down in the
dirt, up close and personal with the couple.
Even when they notice him and advance in his direction, he is “paralyzed
by wonder” and does not move. Abbey’s complete connection to the world around
him, his being mystified by the complex animals around him make you realize
that if you didn’t have bewilderment if your life it would be quite boring. Nothing
would shock you, spark that thought of “Wow would you look at that?”
I very strongly agree with this. Furthermore, I find the negative connotation the bewilderment has attained to be quite unfortunate, given that its true meaning is very positive. In this way, I agree that Abbey is a beautiful writer because of how he is able to show the true meaning of bewilderment. He is able to show that bewilderment is a sense of wonder and excitement rather than a sense of simple loss like it is so often made out to be. To me, Abbey has made me realize how bewilderment is a type of learning experience-- a very good one at that-- and how it should incite excitement and imagination rather than fear and hopelessness. I think, for example, this is the reason why some are so drawn toward bewildering experiences such as foreign travel, where any given person is placed somewhere that has a different culture, different customs, and often times a different language. Many are so drawn to it because of the learning experience it provided through sheer bewilderment, while many fear it for the same reason.
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