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Study questions for selected essays by Edward Abbey readings
"A Theory of Anarchy," One Life at a Time, Please, 25-28. (Required reading.)
“Freedom and Wilderness, Wilderness and Freedom,” The Journey Home, 227-238. (Required reading.)
“A Writer’s Credo,” One Life at a Time, Please, 161-178. (Required reading.)
“The Conscience of a Conqueror,” Abbey’s Road, 133-137. (recommended)
“Shadows from the Big Woods,” The Journey Home, 223-226 (recommended)
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A Theory of Anarchy
1. What is Abbey’s critique of current society and politics? How do you evaluate his critique, and what do you base it on? (25, 27, 28)
2. How does Abbey define anarchism? For him, what is the relationship between anarchism and democracy? What is the anarchist attitude toward rules? What is the purpose of anarchism? What is your evaluation of his notion of anarchism? (25-27)
3. What does Abbey say an anarchist society would look like in real life? (26, 27, 28) Do you think that is a good ideal? Why or why not?
4. What view of human nature is involved in his view of anarchism? (27, 28)
5. How does Abbey relate anarchism to early American political history (Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Lincoln)? (27, 28)
6. What do you think of the final lines of the essay? Why two cheers? What effect does that have on you as the reader?
Freedom and wilderness, wilderness and freedom
1. Why does Abbey say we need wilderness? (229)
2. How does Abbey explain the aggression of Germany during WWI and WWII? (232)
3. How does Ed feel or relate his feeling/theories about the relationship between wilderness and freedom?
(235)
4. What phrases does he use during the beginning of the mountain lion to give the reader a sense of the tension of the situation? (237)
5. What is Abbey's point of telling the mountain lion story? (238)
A Writer's Credo
1. Abbey puts forth a credo, beliefs and principles, of writing, what does this credo entail? What are your reactions to it? (176/throughout)
2. Does Abbey present dangers of not using what means of free speech are available? What is this danger? Find examples in the writing. (throughout)
3. In 1922, George O. Squire observed that workers are more productive when music is played in the background. He patented a system for its transmission into workplaces, entitled Muzak. Research, soon following, showed that certain types of music increase worker productivity and influence the shopping habits of shoppers. Why does Abbey compare some literature and literary figures to Muzak? Do you believe this comparison is rightly said? (163)
4. What does Ed mean by the terms “political” and “sacred cows of society?” How must a writer, according to him, view and use such terms/concepts? (163)
5. Abbey states “the willingness to risk abuse for the sake of truth is one of the writer’s obligatory chores.” Does he define truth? What is the relation between truth and power? Do you agree or disagree? Why? (164-165)
6. Ed states “I am willing to go by appearances” and that there exists a “moral area in which true can easily be distinguished from the false.” How do you feel about this approach of viewing reality? Are there dangers in viewing certain things solely on appearances? When and when not would this be appropriate? (166)
7. The credo Abbey presents, throughout the essay, displays contempt for “sycophants,” (162) whom do not fulfill their moral obligations as writers. Find examples of this. Why does he hold contempt for such writers? (throughout)
8. Examine Abbey’s concept of the writer as a “hero” and his/her obligatory roles. (166/throughout)
9. What are the four reasons, which Ed outlines, why in the “richest, freest, happiest, big nation on earth” should a writer take the role of a critic? Do you see these as banalities, as Ed does? Explain. (169-171)
10. What do you feel Abbey means by the phrase “One life at a time please”? (177)
Shadows from the Big Woods
1. Abbey says, “Those passionate warriors had disappeared a century before we were even born, but their spirits lingered, their shades still informed the spirit of the place”. What do you think he is implying by this? (224)
2. What does Abbey feel is the difference between the “present and the past”? (225)
3. What does Abbey say about earth being an organism? (225)
4. What is the machine to Abbey (throughout’)
5. What are the Shadows from the Big Woods and what is the significant of them in this section?
The Conscience of the Conqueror
1. (133) What types of ethics is Abbey referring to? Where are our ethics now?
2. (134) Abbey brings up the idea of humans merely being a "raw material," do you agree or disagree with this statement? Are we the top of the food chain?
3. (134) He talks about the "moralistic vegetarian" as being a hypocrite, would you agree with the point he is making?
4. (135) Abbey writes "The industrial way of life implies the risk of mass-produced death." What is he implying here? Is it true?
5. (135) Abbey writes about the mind as being humans greatest evolution and that we are meant to use it, what is he implying?
6. (136) Abbey talks of the endless-growth economy and he considers this to be a diseased economy. What does he mean by this and what are the consequences of an endless-growth economy?
7. (136) Abbey also talks of more conflict coming if the environmental movement fails. Do you think there would be more conflicts(wars) if the environmental movement fails? Why so?
8. (136) Abbey talks about technology, how do you think he feels about technology? What kind of a nightmare does he describe, and would you want to live in it?
9.(last page) Abbey talks of America as a place where we can maybe "save a useful sample of the original land." What kind of a notion is he bringing up here, and do you agree with him?
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