Edward Abbey's second novel, The Courageous Cowboy, is intensely critical of modern life. The book celebrates open spaces and freedom through a coherent comparison with an adjacent reality: the hustle and bustle of the city. As the novel continues, we experience the challenges and constraints that Abbey links to modernity, which Abbey sees as unfortunate but inevitable. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Abbey criticizes modern American life because he believed that wilderness should go "beyond the human" (Minteer). In The Brave Cowboy, Abbey advocates for a natural environment in which one can reflect without distractions, one of the common themes in the book as he laments an increasing dependence on mechanical elements. As expressed by Abbey in another 1982 work, Down the River, the connection with the environment is sacred because "loyalty to the land, the land that gave birth to us and sustains us, the only home we will ever know, the only paradise we will ever need." – if only we had eyes to see” (Minter). Abbey shows us that private and meaningful reflection is tested by life led in an industrialized society; characterizes the earth as a living and instructive entity. Abbey begins The Brave Cowboy with an ode to what she loved dearly: an open, undisturbed land. The prologue lovingly explores the beauty of the West and a specific valley “where ghosts come to brood and cry” (Abbey 7). Abbey describes the wilderness, writing, "The river flows past the cornfields and mud villages of the Indians, past groves of red willow and cane oak, through the edges of the white man's town [...] beyond the Mountain of the Thieves, far to the south and vanishes finally into the dim purple haze of distance” (7) As the protagonist, Jack Burns, approaches the first signs of civilization, Abbey introduces waste and debris: “The horse and the man”. they passed other signs and stigmata of life: the petrograph of a wild turkey carved in stone, a couple of tin cans riddled with bullet holes of various calibers, brass shell casings, an empty sardine can melting in rust Yes they were getting closer to civilization” (7). Abbey introduces the unsettling sense that decay is closing in on Burns as he gets closer to the city, and we even feel the resistance of his horse as we get closer: “Whisky stepped onto the hard asphalt, shook. his head and took a step back, struggling against the reins” (25). When Abbey introduces a town in The Brave Cowboy, she makes it clear that the buzz and bustle is bad. He describes the city as "sunburnt" (124) and full of distractions, constantly referencing noise pollution and distracting city lights: The darkness was far from complete: the four-lane highway snaking through the bottom of the pass was alive, creeping, itchy with motor traffic - and endless procession of tiny points of light proceeding like pearls on a string through the darkness, passing and repassing, vanishing, reappearing, fed into the night by seemingly inexhaustible sources (267). It is not just the presence of city lights that cause frustration, but the presence of any artificial or artificial light. It becomes the enemy, as when the helicopter crashes, and “the great main rotor [was] still spinning, flashing” despite its obvious failure: Abbey makes it clear that these artificial elements are never to be trusted (232). Previously, Burns was scared by a flashlight in the desert while trying to "stay hidden." As Abbey describes: "Then he saw and almost heard a rapidly oscillating beam of lightin the air above his head, danced above the poplar leaves and disappeared" (203). There are even colors that Abbey suggests are dangerously too modern, and one of them is yellow. Yellow is a spontaneous and sometimes unstable color. In fact, studies show that excessive use of yellow can be bothersome to the mind (Precision Intermedia). Yellow can affect concentration and make it harder to concentrate, which coordinates with Abbey's view of highly disturbing city life. As a disturbing and attention-getting color, it appears regularly in The Brave Cowboy: when Bondi looks out of the prison cell, Abbey describes the "yellow rectangles of lighted windows, all the manifold refractions of the great American night" (58). It refers to the “yellow darkness” and also includes a strong description of urban life at the end of the novel: “The urban streets are a chaos of sound, color and movement: 'Blue, red, yellow, flashing and dancing [. ..] while the yellow blue red screams neon” (280-281). These elements distract the individual from the contemplation that Abbey believes is so vital. Abbey, in fact, not only identifies certain colors with artificial and natural elements, but compares the color palettes of the city to those of his favorite environment, nature. The city is often described as having disjointed and harsh color schemes or, conversely, as washed of all colours. The city seems bustling but has no soul, while the desert offers breathtaking views and surprising signs of natural life. One of the most powerful descriptions of the landscape is found when Burns travels down the canyon: “Unexpectedly, the view opened wide and the entire Western world stretched before him: the canyon descending step by step like an imperial staircase to the gods, the skinny purple hills, the mesa stretching for miles, the faint shimmer of the river” (201). This painting, too, has the power to transform the city into something beautiful – from a distance: “The vast, rolling city ten miles away, transformed by the evening twilight into something fantastic, grand and lovely, a rich constellation of jewels glittering like the embers of a fire” (201). Abbey makes it clear that modern, industrialized life is no place for contemplative thought. Its protagonist finds peace and tranquility in the desert and seeks it as a refuge. Burns, even without a sleeping bag and running, finds a moment of quiet comfort in his favorite habitat: “He burped, lying on his back, and considered not chasing his mare and her equipment. [...] Burns puffed on his pipe again, watching the gray smoke rise toward the stars” (200-201). Abbey writes that the silence of the desert is a “perfect dome” and treasures the “vast silence” that constitutes “the desert, the river, and the valley” (15). Nature connects every element, while the noise and confusion of the city is seen as disconnected. Finally, Abbey highlights the importance of nature by making it tower over artificial elements. Abbey describes the presence of the mountain and, at the beginning of the book, underlines its nature "not to be ignored": The mountains loomed over the valley like a physical presence, source and mirror of nervous influences, emotions, subtle and indefinable aspirations; no man could ignore that presence; in a clandestine poker game, in the vaults of the First National Bank, in the secret rooms of the Factory, in the back of the real estate agent's office while composing an intricate scam... (19).Abbey insists that nothing can obscure the mountain, and that everyone feels it, whether they are really aware of it or not. The mountain is the penultimate feature of the environment and is all-seeing, achieving a divine quality. Man-made features are dwarfed by greatness,. 2017.