Tennessee William's Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert

What Does the Earth Feel but Cannot Say?

The significance for writing this paper is to reiterate and focus in on specific ideas Terry Tempest Williams brings up in Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert. Williams’s passion for the desert is the reason she wrote the book in the first place, and I will dig deeper into the way she writes to express nature. Red stands out as a work of literary non-fiction prose that explores Terry Tempest Williams’s attachment to the wilderness of Utah. Throughout the book, Williams portrays theme of beauty and destruction. She elaborately describes the beautiful landscapes of Utah and destruction of those landscapes. Unfortunately, animals, trees, and other parts of the outdoors cannot speak and ask for the destruction to stop. Terry Tempest Williams describe the suffering wilderness that cannot fight back by offering political, historical, and descriptive style. Williams writes about nature with deep connections to Utah and it amplifies her passion as she advocates to save the wilds of Utah and inspire others do the same in their area.

First, the political interference on the growing wilderness due to laws, acts, and monuments are ruining lives of Utah’s wildlife. Government officials are taking it upon themselves to determine that it is okay to take down acres worth of trees to satisfy our needs while neglecting the concerns of wildlife. There are many places across the United States are deemed “reservations” or “safe zones” and acts are written to protect creatures of the woods but instead benefit the government in cleverly removing parts of nature. Specifically, In Utah, the Habitat Management Plan which is “a process by which the most appropriate management direction or best use of refuge lands was evaluated. ... Priority species and species groups were developed during the evaluation process” (Olsen, Lindsey, Hirschboeck 5), is an example of this concept of “safe zones” that aren’t really safe. Williams writes in the chapter, “To Be Taken,” about the Habitat Management Plan and the effect it has on the desert tortoise’s environment. The plan is enforced to make way for building new homes. In the process of building new homes, animals such as the tortoise are losing territory, where they have always been to curl their heads in at night. “If you are a desert tortoise living in Washington County, take this advice: Start crawling your way toward the hills north of St. George, Utah” (William's e-book 161). Implementing politics like the Habitat Management plan disrupts the balance of nature by tearing an innocent creatures’ home and forcing them to leave or die. This is only one example of political engagement that is creating detrimental outcomes for the wilds of Utah. After reading these stories, I pondered how much of the environment is disrupted from the politics of humans and the politics of nature.

War between humans is an outside force that causes devastation in nature. Bickering countries decide they don’t like what the others are doing and decide to attack. War is one of the biproducts of politics that go to the extreme. When someone thinks about war their first thought probably goes to what the fight is about and how many lives have been lost. However, most would not think directly of the consequences of turning a bright green field into a bloodred nightmare. Williams’s theme of red in her book symbolizes the cuts and bruises this world can leave on it. What was once beautiful is now stripped of its beauty and left with scars of broken memories. Terry Tempest Williams states, in the first sentence of Red, “It is a simple equation: place + people = politics. In the American West, the simplicity becomes complicated very quickly as abstractions of philosophy and rhetoric turn into ground scrimmages” (William's e-book 21). Williams’s quote implies human politics can take place anywhere that two parties or more come against one another with conflicting ideas. Politics in general become a battle ground themselves to get what they want. The extreme case of bringing a verbal fight into a full out war is an activity that humans and nature take part in; one has a chance to win and the other cannot change the outcome of its loss.

During World War 1, Flanders’s field was one of the major battle fields that saw death and destruction. War takes an effect on men and whatever designates as the war zone. Straying shells and cannon blasts fell all around taking lives of men and the beautiful land of Belgium. After the smoke clears, soldiers can see the ruts in the ground where bullets ricocheted, and large ditches kissed by an explosive. Smoke envelopes the air which chokes the trees, soldiers breathing their last, and everything smells of burning flesh. “Warfare exacts a toll on natural ecosystems as well as on human populations. Environmental damage associated with conflict, including disruption of agriculture and infrastructure, is a cost of war” (Environmental Literacy Council). War on land brings as much damage as it does to the people who fight there. Human politics change the environment whether politicians acknowledge it or not. Flanders’s field became red with blood instead of the green of life which the ground could not retaliate. Although, the red poppies that bloom there now are a sign that nature has its own way of fighting back even though it can’t all the time.

Looking into the past of Utah’s background and history is one of the larger sections of the book following several documents on politics. At first glance, a reader might think Utah’s wilderness holds no important historical meaning; they would be wrong. Part of the important history stems from traditions of using spaces for events. One tradition is the passing of the Olympic torch from one generation to the next at Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. “…a few weeks ago a Ute elder uttered prayers and passed the Winter Olympics torch to his granddaughter…” (William's e-book 355). The significance of this quotation is not only the fact that a tradition is being upheld, but also the fact it is a native American who is conducting it. In America today, natives are viewed as entities who have almost been completely forgotten because their land and culture have been slowly dying away. Williams uses a former native group to Utah, the Anasazi, to educate readers to what happened to those tribes and why it is important to remember them.

In the chapter “Buried Poems,” the archeologist is writing poems and burying them in the ground in hopes that the people of his town will remember the Anasazi. “He explains how these drawings on canyon walls are a reflection of Anasazi culture, of rituals, and all that mattered in their lives” (William's e-book 78). From this quotation and the entirety of the chapter “Buried Poems,” is about remembering the past and its people to reengage the hearts of men, women, and children to support the rocks, twigs, and snails as living and breathing things that need protecting. What Williams and the archeologist try to do here is make the wilderness’s history visible to those who have forgotten it exists, so the suffering might end one day. However, more and more beautiful trees, gorgeous mountains, flowing rivers, and wide-open spaces are sadly removed, reevaluated, and relinquished each day.

Lastly, Williams’s descriptive writing style elaborates the destruction of Utah. In the chapter “Chewing Up A Fragile Land,” she uses creative diction to give the reader full exposure to what is occurring in the desert scape below through her thoughts, feelings, and visions in her writing. “The delicate desert crust that holds the red sand in place from wind and erosion, known as cryobiotic soil, was obliterated. Replacing it, in effect, was a newly crushed road” (William's e-book 354). Williams’s vocabulary like “delicate”, “erosion”, “obliterated”, and “crushed” emphasize destroying the Earth by ripping it apart. Our planet suffers every time a tree is cut down and not replaced which is shortening our lives on this planet. Eventually the conditions the Earth needs to survive won’t be there to sustain it. In turn, we might not survive long enough to change the circumstances which is why we need to do something now. the act of pounding the ground with large machines is described through the eyes of Williams. The destruction this thunderous equipment leaves behind is devastating because where the earth was soft, and now, is brittle, broken, and in a million pieces. The shockwaves made such a vibration that large arches like Delicate Arch might come down to the ground. This potential loss of a traditional, historical, and beautiful rock formations is why Terry Tempest Williams fights to save her homeland that cannot fight for themselves.

Mother Earth is crying out to humans to reconsider what they are doing to her creation and their offspring. The suffering of the wilderness is so intense that it is reflected in one of William’s poems that she provides in this book. “What I remember is being led on a steep path to ‘The Weeping Rock.’ Once there, the temperature cooled, the sun was shielded. Our eyes adjusted to the darkness. A tall black wall with ferns dripping loomed before us” (William's e-book 142). This quote is a metaphor which implies nature is distraught over its demise. The rock is black like depressed souls and its ferns are dripping water like tears. The rock can only weep to express the pain and sorrow it feels. Nature is dying out because the forests are attacked by loggers and other vicious means to take away what is rightfully belongs in it. This rock has seen many things since seeing the world for the first time.

The scene illustrated above, is illustrated by Terry Tempest Williams’s fine use of diction and her unique style of writing. She uses the power of her stories to let her audience know what is happening out there in nature and consequences of these actions. In an article by Thad Box, he mentions an interview with Williams where she stated "Story bypasses rhetoric and pierces the heart. We feel it. Stories have the power to create social change and inspire community” (Box, Thad 1). The article is called “Listening to the Land” is a theme running throughout Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert. Williams uses the power of her words to entangle readers into a diverse array of creative nonfiction pieces that pierce hearts. The whole point of writing a novel like Red is to tell the world what is happening and call them to action to do something about it. She is a pioneer for change in the conversation on the treatment of nature.

In agreement with what Williams says above, her writing is more than a story or telling people they should care more about their treatment of nature. Terry Tempest Williams’s book is about inspiring an audience without giving speeches and using all the fancy rhetoric to win anyone over. She simply tells tales of natives long ago, characters that lose themselves to nature and finds themselves in a few pages. In another interview with Terry Tempest Williams, she said “I see myself as a storyteller, a translator, a disruptor, but more than anything I see myself as an engaged citizen. As citizens, we all have a voice” (Mineo, Liz). This again is somewhat of a call to action from Williams. She is right to say that we all have a voice to share in helping to preserve, conserve, and protect the remaining areas of forest and nature that still exist. Her words are stopping the current conversation and starting a new one. What can the Earth feel but not say? It can’t ask for help but with an advocate like Williams on its side there is room in the future to grow to new heights.

Suffering is a part of life but going beyond boundaries and taking more than needed is a threat against nature. Terry Tempest Williams illustrates the suffering that is resounding through the canyons and documents of short stories, memoir-like chapters, police reports, historical background, and lists of national parks. These elements reflect events happening to the wilderness that cannot be expressed by themselves, but mostly through others. Someone can speak up for the tortoises to have them safely relocated out of harm’s way. Aspiring diplomats can help change the historical past of destroying precious land and possibly creating new laws that protect instead of taking away. Williams implies throughout the entire book the wilds cannot stand up for themselves and we should be stepping in to do it for them. She uses politics, history, and imagery to support her argument. As many advocates and Terry Tempest Williams say, doing our part to keep the Earth in good condition takes more than a little action. We are all called to maintain the balance and beauty of our world.

Work Cited:

Box, Thad. “Listening to the Land: The Power of Story.” Rangelands, vol. 27, no. 3, 2005, pp. 74–75. JSTOR.

“Conflict & Natural Resources.” The Environmental Literacy Council, The Environmental Literacy Council, 2015.

Mineo, Liz. “Writer Terry Tempest Williams Reflects on Being at Harvard Divinity School.” Harvard Gazette, Harvard Gazette, 7 Sept. 2018.

United States, Congress, Olson, Bridget E, et al. “Habitat Management Plan.” Habitat Management Plan, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2004, pp. 1–213.

Williams, Terry Tempest. Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert. E-book. Pantheon Books, 2001.