Throwing a Wrench into the Literary Machine: A Poststructuralist Examination of The Monkey Wrench Gang
Chapter One: Statement of the Problem An army of bulldozers propels its way through a nearly vacant town, churning powerfully towards the buildings it intends to reduce to meaningless rubble. The remaining inhabitants, left powerless to negotiate with the destructionists, all share an indignant determination to ax the onslaught of the place they call home. As the mechanized gears continue to grind, the approaching bulldozers appear progressively larger to the protesting civilians, paralleling the sense of injustice shared among the objectors. In a valiant effort, the outraged demonstrators disassemble the oncoming threat to their way of life, jamming the cogs, dismantling the wheels, and congesting the levers …show more content…
Made particularly prevalent in the characters’ dedication to radical environmentalism, the novel places society’s state of being just or unjust at the center of discussion, such that a careful evaluation of the efficacy of the law may be carried out.
Most critically, however, The Monkey Wrench Gang exemplifies how radical activism provides the medium through which new hierarchal powers form, ultimately arising as a product of attempts to overthrow another regime. As the oppressed challenge their oppressor, internal ideological contradictions reify the root of injustice in the post-revolutionary governmentalities. After all, if the townspeople who derailed the destructive bulldozers maintained control of their land, then those very townspeople would become the hegemonic injustice to uproot in the eyes of the newest disenfranchised community.
Chapter Two: Summary of Outside
Chapter One: Statement of the Problem An army of bulldozers propels its way through a nearly vacant town, churning powerfully towards the buildings it intends to reduce to meaningless rubble. The remaining inhabitants, left powerless to negotiate with the destructionists, all share an indignant determination to ax the onslaught of the place they call home. As the mechanized gears continue to grind, the approaching bulldozers appear progressively larger to the protesting civilians, paralleling the sense of injustice shared among the objectors. In a valiant effort, the outraged demonstrators disassemble the oncoming threat to their way of life, jamming the cogs, dismantling the wheels, and congesting the levers …show more content…
Made particularly prevalent in the characters’ dedication to radical environmentalism, the novel places society’s state of being just or unjust at the center of discussion, such that a careful evaluation of the efficacy of the law may be carried out.
Most critically, however, The Monkey Wrench Gang exemplifies how radical activism provides the medium through which new hierarchal powers form, ultimately arising as a product of attempts to overthrow another regime. As the oppressed challenge their oppressor, internal ideological contradictions reify the root of injustice in the post-revolutionary governmentalities. After all, if the townspeople who derailed the destructive bulldozers maintained control of their land, then those very townspeople would become the hegemonic injustice to uproot in the eyes of the newest disenfranchised community.
Chapter Two: Summary of Outside