ABSTRACT
Edward Abbey’s 1975 novel The Monkey Wrench Gang literally starts with a bang. The violent actions of The Monkey Wrench Gang literally’s protagonists, however radical they may seem, are part of an essentially conservative project which aims to protect a traditionalist and nostalgic notion of the American West. Even though the actions described in The Monkey Wrench Gang are transgressive in their crossing of legal boundaries and in their reliance on physical destruction, they are not intended as a permanent overthrowing of social order. The Monkey Wrench Gang emerged against a social background which increasingly condemned the negative effects of America’s post-war culture of materialist well-being. Despite the attraction of The Monkey Wrench Gang’s characters, their rebellious actions, the novel’s celebration of anti-authoritarian behaviour and its lyrical descriptions of the Western landscape, the story are not without its problems.
