One of the most difficult characteristics of any activist movement is how to define what is good activism and what is bad activism. Each person has a different definition of what activism is, as well as what qualifies as good activism or bad activism. I thought it was interesting that The Monkey Wrench Gang was such an influential book for the environmental movement because it is what I would consider bad activism.
A frustrating part of being an activist is the painstakingly slow progress that it can sometimes take to accomplish specific goals. For example, DDT was used from the start of WWII until 1972 in the United States, even though Silent Spring was published ten years earlier. However, in Edward Abbey’s novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang, no such action was waited for as the characters in the book sought to make a difference. These characters resorted to destruction and even in some cases the use of explosives to try and make their difference known. This tactic differed from the environmental movement of today; many of the current actions take place in the courtroom or different governmental offices. The juxtaposition to the movements of today, at first made it difficult to relate to the characters. After rereading the passages, I realized that the things they were doing, while poor decisions, were choices that they felt would make an immediate impact. By destroying bulldozers or blowing up bridges, the monkey wrench gang drew attention to the atrocities being committed by humans upon nature. When Edward Abbey wrote the novel, the environmental movement was in its infancy and these acts appeared to have a direct impact on the industries degrading nature.
The environmental movement was spurred onward by this novel and I think this can be contributed to the way that Abbey describes the landscape in the book. Abbey used elegant and descriptive language to depict the nature around the gang. Abbey writes, “the cool twilight of dawn. Jaybirds crying in the pinyon pines. A band of pearl and ivory spread across the east.” Abbey’s figurative phrasing illustrated how Abbey makes the readers feel as if they are in the wilderness with the gang. The vivid imagery creates a romantic feel that the readers cannot escape. The way he depicts nature creates a feeling of beauty and love for nature, which leads the reader to condemn the destruction of it by man.
Even though I think what they did was bad activism, The Monkey Wrench Gang illustrates the beauty of nature, and it brings the conversation of the morality of destroying nature to the forefront.
