Steinbeck's The Desert Review

In Steinbeck's "The Desert", the Southwest is described at first as a "wasteland," however there is more to it, "something concealed and waiting" (35). There are many things in the Southwest that are also in the archetypal garden.

There is a farm setting in the desert, while it is not a traditional farm, you can find "a patch of starving corn and squash" (35). This shows the farm component of the archetypal garden. The aspect of the fertile and secure valley is shown as well, there are people living in the desert "somewhere in a protected place, with a few trees pointing their roots at under-earth water" (35). While it is not actually a valley it is both a secure place and a more fertile place than the rest of the desert. The pathway is also part of the archetypal garden that is shown in the Southwest. "Follow the double line of wheel tracks through sand and rock and you will find a habitation" (35). The fertileness of the desert is also shown when Steinbeck says, "The beaten earth appears defeated and dead, but it only appears so" and "when the sun goes and the night gives consent, a world of creatures awakens and takes up its intricate pattern" (37). What is fertile in the desert only appears dead though it is actually thriving, "A vast and inventive organization of living matter survives by seeming to have lost" (37).

In addition to the aspects of the garden that are actually shown visually, there are also aspects which Steinbeck reveals through his feelings about the Southwest. One statement which shows Steinbeck's thoughts about the desert is "The great concepts of oneness and of majestic order seem always to be born in the desert" (35). This shows that he feels the desert is a calm and peaceful place where new thinking and ways of life can begin. While the people of the desert may live in what is only partially an archetypal garden they can be fully at peace in their minds, and by doing so, create their own garden there.

Steinbeck explains that the reason for the presence of the garden in the desert as the need that every living thing has to survive. "One ingredient, perhaps the most important of all, is planted in every life form - the factor of survival" (38). Steinbeck believes that the desire to live is possessed by everything that is living and that because of this desire they can survive in harsh conditions. Without this desire to live the plants and animals of the desert would not survive in the desert because they would not be able to adapt to the conditions.

Though the desert seems like a desolate wasteland, it actually has a hidden garden. The plants and animals there seem lifeless at times, but that is just one of the ways they keep themselves alive. The small patches of crops and the groves of trees show some of the fertileness in the desert. The pathways show the existence of desert societies, and the stories the desert people tell give meaning to life in the desert. The people are also living in a garden in the desert through their mental state. The peace they have in their mind is achieved in part because of where they live. Although it appears there is nothing fertile about the desert, it contains both physical and mental states of fertile gardens.