Desert Solitaire

Abbey assists his neighbor, Roy Scobie, proprietor of Roy Scobie’s Redrock Ranch, in retrieving his herd of cattle that wandered away: “The cattle wander far over the open range, driven by hunger and thirst, and forget who they belong to. Why no fences? Because in much of the canyon country there is no ground to dig postholes in–nothing but solid rock” (104).

Abbey and Scobie are accompanied in their task by Roy’s “hired man” (102), Viviano Jacquez, and it’s a grueling multi-day excursion for the three desert-hardened men. The cows don’t want to move, much less be shepherded home; Abbey speaks of them with raw contempt: “Ugly brutes, bound for a summer in the high meadows and then the slaughter house–too bloody good for them, I was thinking” (105). The men show the cows little mercy: “When they stopped we yelled and whistled at them, beat their gaunt hipbones with our bridal reins, and kicked them in the ribs” (104).

Abbey describes Roy and Viviano at length. Though Roy is “only about seventy years old,” (109) he is obsessed with death and the potential dangers associated with aging. Abbey, bemused by Roy’s inveterate melancholy, would comfort him if he could, but knows that his words would be of no use.