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Husk is a foolhardy amateur uranium hunter from Texas who is rumored to have mortgaged his farm and relocated his family to Moab, Utah, following the World War II uranium craze. Ravenous to make his fortune, he partners with the slick prospector Charles Graham and canvasses the Canyonlands obsessively for the prized mineral, eventually losing his young wife to Graham, who ends up killing Husk in an altercation. Though Husk’s tragic story is probably a local legend, Abbey includes it as a cautionary tale against the greed of those who destroy the earth for financial gain. Husk disappears for long periods into the desert canyons—as Abbey himself does—but he does so for the wrong reason: monetary greed. Whereas Abbey’s extended isolation brings him closer to his friend Ralph Newcomb and to humanity in general, Husk’s isolation only estranges him from the young Mrs. Husk and, ultimately, brings about his own demise when Charles Graham seduces Mrs. Husk and kills Alfred. So, even though Abbey advocates isolated self-discovery in the desert, he uses Husk’s example to warn against doing so for any motive other than nature’s inherent rewards. By contrast, Husk’s son Billy-Joe, who flees the scene of the murder and dies of exposure in the desert, deliriously grasps some of these rewards before his untimely death—a stark counterexample to the greed of his father.
Alfred T. Husk Quotes in Desert Solitaire
The Desert Solitaire quotes below are all either spoken by Alfred T. Husk or refer to Alfred T. Husk. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Rocks
Quotes
There was a bush. A bush growing out of the hard sun-baked mud. And the bush was alive, each of its many branches writhing in a sort of dance and all clothed in a luminous aura of smoky green, fiery blue, flame-like yellow. As he watched the bush become larger, more active, brighter and brighter. Suddenly it exploded into fire.
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Get LitCharts A+The walls of the canyon towered over him, leaning in toward him then moving back, in and then back, but without sound. They were radiant, like heated iron. The moon had passed out of sight. He saw the stars caught in a dense sky like moths in a cobweb, alive, quivering, struggling to escape. He understood their fear, their desperation, and wept in sympathy with their helplessness.
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Alfred T. Husk Quotes in Desert Solitaire
The Desert Solitaire quotes below are all either spoken by Alfred T. Husk or refer to Alfred T. Husk. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Rocks
Quotes
There was a bush. A bush growing out of the hard sun-baked mud. And the bush was alive, each of its many branches writhing in a sort of dance and all clothed in a luminous aura of smoky green, fiery blue, flame-like yellow. As he watched the bush become larger, more active, brighter and brighter. Suddenly it exploded into fire.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Unlock explanations and citation info for this and every other Desert Solitaire quote.
Plus so much more...
Get LitCharts A+The walls of the canyon towered over him, leaning in toward him then moving back, in and then back, but without sound. They were radiant, like heated iron. The moon had passed out of sight. He saw the stars caught in a dense sky like moths in a cobweb, alive, quivering, struggling to escape. He understood their fear, their desperation, and wept in sympathy with their helplessness.
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