The Monkey Wrench Gang Free

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. Written by environmental advocate Edward Abbey inThe Monkey Wrench Gang tells the story of a motley crew of environmental activists fighting industrialization in the American Southwest. Abbey's most famous work of fiction, this novel inspired a generation of eco-activists. Opening in the so-called "aftermath" 1 of the novel, Abbey immediately situates the reader in media resat the site of a newly-built bridge between Arizona and Utah, over Glen Canyon. A "workman" 4 in a hardhat makes an adjustment to the bridge's barrier ribbon, which seems to trigger an explosive device that cracks the middle of the bridge. This man is George Hayduke, a member of the novel's titular gang. Hayduke, a "short, broad, burly" 18 former Green Beret kept as a The Monkey Wrench Gang of war in Vietnam for over a year, forms a group with three others The Monkey Wrench Gang a fight to protect his beloved native region: the American Southwest. Joining him are: Dr. The four meet on a river-rafting trip guided by Smith. Sitting around the campfire, drinking, and smoking pot, Hayduke complains about "the new power lines" 66and Smith about "that dam which had plugged up Glen Canyon, the heart of his river, the river of his heart" Doc offhandedly suggests that they should "blow that dam to shitaree" The others agree that they're "only talkin'" 70 but by the next day, they've begun to make plans to take action The Monkey Wrench Gang their enemies: developers, politicians, and oil, logging, and mining companies. With Doc as their financial backer, the gang assembles outdoor gear, canned and dried foods, and "adequate quantities of Du Pont Straight and Du Pont Red Cross Extra" 71also The Monkey Wrench Gang as dynamite. Only Hayduke carries a gun, a. This remains a point of contention between Hayduke and the gang's other members. The gang's first operation is to tamper with the bulldozers and other vehicles at the site of a new road's construction. They'll "drain the oil, let the motors run and walk away" 91 so that the engines will seize up, damaging the machines. In a pattern that The Monkey Wrench Gang hold, Smith and Hayduke work with the bulldozers while Doc and Bonnie stand watch. This arrangement frustrates Bonnie, who complains frequently about boredom and feels discriminated against as the gang's sole female member. The morning after their first raid, another pattern emerges; Hayduke, hotheaded and eager for "creative destruction"sets out for a solo mission: pulling up survey stakes that plot the new road's course. Over the next few weeks, the gang or portions of the gang commit more acts of sabotage in the name of environmentalism. Their ultimate goal remains the destruction of the Glen Canyon Dam, though the gang knows this may be impossible. Undeterred they galivant through the desert, pushing bulldozers into the canyons, damaging more The Monkey Wrench Gang sites and vehicles, and tearing down billboards, provoking the ire of local vigilante Bishop J. Dudley Love and his "Search and Rescue team" The gang also arouses the suspicion of rangers in the National Park Service. The Monkey Wrench Gang in a series of actions intended to take out two small bridges, the gang gets trapped in "the Fins, the Land of Standing Rocks" This time, though, the Utah State Police join Bishop Love's small team of men, along with their helicopters, dogs, and heavy artillery. Starving and severely dehydrated, the The Monkey Wrench Gang finds themselves faced with imminent capture. Doc surrenders first, drawn to keep his Hippocratic oath and help Bishop Love, after Love suffers a heart attack. Bonnie, though she's engaged in an intense affair with Hayduke, follows immediately after, loyal to Doc. Smith and Hayduke continue on until Hayduke, who "hates farewells"slips away while Smith sleeps. Smith tries to make it The Monkey Wrench Gang his third wife's home in Green River but gets caught by park rangers after stealing "two cool packages wrapped in white butcher paper, touched with blood" from the ice chest of some elderly tourists. Hayduke, who has so far improbably survived two run-ins with Bishop Love, succumbs to "a fusillade of gunfire" The novel ends with Smith, Doc, and Bonnie having received light sentences probation for The Monkey Wrench Gang crimes, and all living near each other in Green River. Hayduke miraculously survives the shoot-out with the authorities and reunites with his friends. In The Monkey Wrench GangAbbey shows both the detailed actions of his flawed, conflicted protagonists, and the compelling beauty of the region they fight to preserve. Tackling such huge themes as land use and developmentactivism, anarchy, and land ownership, Abbey imbues this epic novel with personal ardor for the Southwest. His story and prose inspired, and continues The Monkey Wrench Gang inspire, environmental activists throughout the United States. Save Download. Enjoy this free preview Unlock all 55 pages of this Study Guide by subscribing today. Get started. Prologue-Chapter 4. Chapters Chapter Epilogue. Character Analysis. Important Quotes. Essay Topics. Overview Written by environmental advocate Edward Abbey inThe Monkey Wrench Gang tells the story of a motley crew of environmental activists fighting industrialization in the American Southwest. Unlock this Study Guide! Join SuperSummary to gain instant access to all 55 pages of this Study Guide and thousands of other learning resources. Get Started. The Monkey Wrench Gang (Monkey Wrench Gang, #1) by Edward Abbey

Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open The Monkey Wrench Gang See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book The Monkey Wrench Gang. The story centers on Vietnam veteran George Washington Hayduke III, who returns to the desert to find his beloved canyons and rivers threatened by industrial development. The Monkey Wrench Gang they do, his characters voice Abbey's concerns about wilderness preservation "Hell of a place to lose a cow," Smith thinks to himself while roaming through the canyonlands of southern Utah. Hell of a place Moving from one improbable situation to the next, packing more adventure into the space of a few weeks than most real people do in a lifetime, the motley gang puts fear into the hearts of their enemies, laughing all the while. It's comic, yes, and required reading for anyone who has come to love the desert. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. More Details Original Title. Monkey Wrench Gang 1. George W. Arizona Desert United States. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Monkey Wrench Gang Monkey Wrench Gangplease sign up. Did this The Monkey Wrench Gang inspire ecoterrorism or a whole generation of environmental advocates that worked to change the system from within? Christina Not quite I think anyways - Edward Abbey was a guy who lived in the southwest desert and did advocate for The Monkey Wrench Gang environment. However, Silent Spring by …more Not quite I think anyways - Edward Abbey was a guy who lived in the southwest desert and did advocate for the environment. However, Silent Spring by Rachel Carson made waves because it was the first book to really showcase how we are destroying our earth with DDT. Now it seems like old news, but it was easily readable by the public, done by a woman who was teetering on the line of creative writer and The Monkey Wrench Gang, and was published in an accessible way. Hopefully this helps and also, the entire monkeywrenching handbook is accessible online. Source: I'm currently in a s America graduate seminar, and in order to understand the eco movement that is in Abbey, we read Carson first. See 1 question about The Monkey Wrench Gang…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. This tale of four "goldamn envirn-meddlers" is one of the least compelling stories I've ever The Monkey Wrench Gang. I put off picking up the book until The Monkey Wrench Gang before bedtime, and that one or two paragraphs I managed to read sure did wonders for lulling me into unconsciousness. The parts I did stay awake for only served to piss me off. The Monkey Wrench Gang hypocrisy of these eco-terrorists is laughable. They motor up and down the very highways they rage The Monkey Wrench Gang, burning massive amounts of fossil fuels in the commission of their pro This tale of four "goldamn envirn-meddlers" is one of the least compelling stories I've ever read. They motor up and down the very highways they rage against, burning massive amounts of fossil fuels in the commission of their protests, all the while, blithely tossing trash out the windows. Then there's the fact that the men are allowed to be old, fat, and hirsute. The one woman is, of course, young and attractive, with "shaven calves. Probably a disposable which is then tossed from a car window. I don't know. The reason this gets three, rather than two stars, is that I have a feeling I might have liked it had I read it in high school or college. After all, Billy Joe did shoot a man while robbing his castle. I probably should have read this one when I was reading Another Roadside Attraction. Abbey's book reminds me of Tom Robbinsonly not funny. View all 16 comments. Shelves: fiction. Yes, it's an iconic work of anarchy and environmentalism, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth the read. This book is hilarious. Like most other American nature writers, Abbey was a bit of a self-important pig I can't stand Farley Mowat, though maybe he's Canadian ; unlike most other American nature writers, he has a sense of humor about it. The characters are grizzled and absurd, their actions are grandiose and delusional, and I felt a strong sense of solidarity and sympathy the whole way that The Monkey Wrench Gang, it's an iconic work of anarchy and environmentalism, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth the read. The characters are grizzled and absurd, their actions are grandiose and delusional, and I felt a strong sense of solidarity and sympathy the whole way that I probably shouldn't reveal in a public forum. Their last desperate measures to halt uncontrolled development and destruction of the West resonate in a way that a factual The Monkey Wrench Gang of the follies of massive energy projects would not. There is a wider array of characters than normally stereotyped as environmentalists -- in fact, there are no tree-hugging hippies in this book -- and that's what makes it so rich. There's a polygamous Mormon tour-guide whose The Monkey Wrench Gang lies under a dam-made reservoir, a manic The Monkey Wrench Gang and a-social young veteran, and a rich suburban doctor who's banging a younger, depressed transplanted New Yorker. A common critique of Abbey is that he's sexist, and this may be, but I actually like Bonnie's character, objectified though she was as the sole female character and self-aware slut. No, I am not going to go drive a Caterpillar off a cliff now, but this book does make you wonder. View 2 comments. Nov 04, Jonathan Ashleigh rated it it was ok Shelves: recent. I had a tough time getting through this book. Every character had basically the same personality and the story just rambles and rambles. View 1 comment. Mar 30, Kate rated it really liked it. In recent times, Al Gore has credited Rachel Carson The Silent Spring for introducing environmental concerns into his nascent consciousness, but it is a work of fiction not fact, Edward Abbey's "Monkey Wrench Gang", published first inwhich is regarded as having inspired a new generation of angry young environmental activists to the practice of extreme sabotage, sometimes called terrorism, for the sake of protecting the earth. For this reason, I recently reread this novel. I was interest In recent times, Al Gore has credited Rachel Carson The Silent Spring for introducing environmental concerns into his nascent consciousness, but it is a work of fiction not fact, Edward Abbey's "Monkey Wrench Gang", published first inwhich is regarded as having inspired a new generation of angry young environmental activists to the practice of extreme sabotage, sometimes called The Monkey Wrench Gang, for the sake of protecting the earth. I was interested to see if it had dated or whether if it still held relevance in these modern times, on this continent. In the author's own words, "Monkey Wrench Gang" is a "comic extravanganza", a wild improbable story of symbolic aggression and constructive vandalism. A group of 4 passionate environmental warriors comprising a Vietnam vet, an eco-feminist, a wealthy medical doctor and a wilderness guide join forces to commit mayhem and liberate parts of Utah and Arizona from evil developers. They do this by waging war on billboards, construction machinery, roads and dams. While there is plenty of rollicking outrageous fun, nailbiting chase after chase and drama enough, the characters provide a vehicle for Abbey to voice his concerns and express philosophical observations on the subject of environmental preservation and the essential relationship between a healthy planet The Monkey Wrench Gang healthy human beings. Soon there will be no wilderness And the universe goes mad". Is it just a ringing in my ears, or do I hear echoes of Thoreau's The Monkey Wrench Gang wilderness is the preservation of man" here. Having been thoroughly entertained by this page turner's quirky characters and hilarious, daring escapades - the reader is left with heightened awareness of the serious moral questions concerning the nature of our relationship with wilderness and our personal responsibility and culpability. These moral and ethical questions are as contemporary today as they were in the seventies. This book is funny, wise The Monkey Wrench Gang as dangerously disquieting as the day it was first published. Nov 21, Alicia rated it it was ok. I think I would have liked this a lot more too The Monkey Wrench Gang the characters weren't all terrible and racist. Jun 18, The Monkey Wrench Gang rated it it was amazing. Giving this book The Monkey Wrench Gang stars would probably put me on some sort of a list, but let's be honest: I'm already on that list. If you're at all concerned about the environment, this is a pretty good book to read. It was the inspiration for Earth First! The exclamation point is part of the name of the organization, the real end of the sentence follows this parenthetical. But the great part about this book is that it isn't a boring didactic screed. To giv Giving this book 5 stars would probably put me on some sort of a list, but let's be honest: I'm already on that list. To give my favorite example: One character starts using the alias Rudolph the The Monkey Wrench Gang during what would now probably be called a "direct action" campaign against various mining and logging interests. The only reason for that name is so that, in a conversation about the weather, he can say to a girl "Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear. The Monkey Wrench Gang - IMDb

Easily Abbey's most famous work of fiction, the novel concerns the use of sabotage to protest The Monkey Wrench Gang damaging activities in the Southwestern United Statesand was so influential that the term "monkeywrench" has come to mean, besides sabotage and damage to machines, any sabotage, activism, law-making, or law-breaking to preserve wilderness, wild spaces and ecosystems. InThe Monkey Wrench Gang Garden Press released a special 10th Anniversary edition of the book featuring illustrations by R. Crumbplus a chapter titled "Seldom Seen at Home" that had been deleted from the original edition. The Monkey Wrench Gang book's four main characters are ecologically minded misfits—"Seldom Seen" Smith, a Jack Mormon river guide; Doc Sarvis, an odd but wealthy and wise surgeon; Bonnie Abbzug, his young Jewish feminist assistant; and a rather eccentric Green Beret Vietnam veteranGeorge Hayduke. Together, although not always working as a tightly knit team, they form the titular group dedicated to the destruction of what they see as the system that pollutes and destroys their environment, the American West. As the gang's attacks on The Monkey Wrench Gang bulldozers and trains continue, the law closes in. For the gang, the enemy is those who would develop the American Southwest—despoiling the land, befouling the air, and destroying The Monkey Wrench Gang and the sacred purity of Abbey's desert world. Their greatest hatred is focused on the Glen Canyon Dama monolithic edifice of concrete that the monkey-wrenchers seek to destroy because it dams a beautiful wild river. Many scenes of vandalism and ecologically motivated mayhem, including a billboard burning at the beginning of the book and the use of caltrops to elude a group of vigilantes, are presented in sufficient detail as to form a skeletal how-to for would-be saboteurs. The actions are presented in a The Monkey Wrench Gang format, because much of what Hayduke, and the rest of the characters in the story face are larger-than-life obstacles that require larger-than-life approaches. The symbol of the Earth Liberation Front is a monkey wrench and stone hammer. As ofa film adaptation of the book, to be directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulmanwas being planned. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Monkey Wrench Gang First edition cover. Dewey Decimal. This article needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. September Lexington Books. The Monkey Wrench Gang Retrieved August 1, The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 26, Deadline Hollywood. Edward Abbey. Desert Solitaire Down the River George Hayduke character Hayduke Hayduke Trail. Novels portal Environment portal. Categories : Novels by Edward Abbey American novels Anarchist fiction Eco-terrorism in fiction Environmental fiction books Latter Day Saints in popular culture Green anarchism in the environment. Hidden categories: Use mdy dates from June Articles with unsourced quotes Wikipedia articles in need of updating from September All Wikipedia articles in need of updating. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. First edition cover.