Page 127 - DENG105_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_II

Elective English–II Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University

Notes
Unit 10: The Right to Arms by Edward Abbey

CONTENTS
Objectives

Introduction
10.1 The Right to Arms

10.2 Analysis
10.3 Summary
10.4 Keywords
10.5 Review Questions

10.6 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this unit, you will be able to:
• Know about Edward Abbey;
• Discuss the essay The Right to Arms.

Introduction

Edward Paul Abbey was an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental
issues, criticism of public land policies, and anarchist political views. His best-known works
include the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, which has been cited as an inspiration by radical
environmental groups, and the non-fiction work Desert Solitaire. Writer Larry McMurtry referred
to Abbey as the “Thoreau of the American West”.

Abbey was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania on January 29, 1927 to Mildred Postlewait and Paul
Revere Abbey. Mildred was a schoolteacher and a church organist, and gave Abbey an appreciation
for classical music and literature. Paul was a socialist, anarchist, and atheist whose views
strongly influenced Abbey.
Abbey graduated from high school in Indiana, Pennsylvania in 1945. Eight months before his
18th birthday, when he would be faced with being drafted into the United States military,
Abbey decided to explore the American southwest. He travelled on foot, by bus, hitchhiking,
and freight train hopping. During this trip he fell in love with the desert country of the Four
Corners region. Abbey wrote: “[...]crags and pinnacles of naked rock, the dark cores of ancient
volcanoes, a vast and silent emptiness smoldering with heat, color, and indecipherable significance,
above which floated a small number of pure, clear, hard-edged clouds. For the first time, I felt
I was getting close to the West of my deepest imaginings, the place where the tangible and the
mythical became the same.”
Upon his return Abbey was drafted into the military, where he served two years as a military
police officer in Italy, after which he was honorably discharged.
When he returned to the United States, Abbey took advantage of the G.I. Bill to attend the
University of New Mexico, where he received a B.A. in philosophy and English in 1951, and

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