Chapter 8 Cowboys and Indians Part II Summary and Analysis

The summer heat drives Abbey out of the trailer. He builds a crude shelter, sets up a cot and drags the picnic table from the front to the back of the trailer. Here he takes his meals, cooked in the trailer, and sleeps in the cool desert night.

Loneliness sometimes bothers him. He misses the company of someone friendly, but the feelings pass eventually. This is another reason he avoids the trailer interior. The surroundings remind him of more social times, while outside he receives some comfort from the company of wildlife. Abbey hears a great horned owl and imagines how both the owl and its prey, the rabbit, feel about each other. Dusk turns to twilight and the stars begin appearing and forming constellations.

The Navajo Native Americans fascinate Abbey...