The quest for freedom in the changing West of Edward Abbey and Larry McMurtry

Abstract

This dissertation studies some of the ways in which Edward Abbey and Larry McMurtry define freedom through their explorations of the relationship of locale and changing values in the changing West. Abbey senses the degradation of the environment, just as McMurtry senses the degradation of contemporary life. Both realize that disintegration is replacing progress in the New West. Through their different approaches to the themes of freedom and initiation, their philosophies about wilderness and wildness, and their views about the roles and places of women and land, they reveal their love for, and their concern with, the changing West and the way in which its inhabitants meet or resist that change. Acknowledging that the society of the New West is in an embryonic stage, Abbey preaches against man's gluttonous abuse of the land, while McMurtry delineates wasted lives. Whereas Abbey hears and obeys the natural pulse beat of the land throughout his works, McMurtry acknowledges the tensions of urban living.