If the gang has a true leader, it might be the desert itself. Its beauty and wildness motivate the gang to take action and take up arms in its defense. Abbey threads the narrative of the gang's exploits with evocative descriptions of the land they love. Abbey describes the "beaded light of afternoon" (58) slanting down canyon walls and "sagebrush and juniper and pinyon pine spread out over a hundred miles of semi-arid plateau" (97). In writing about the operation at Comb Wash, Abbey says the trees fall over, "smashed and bleeding" (79). Abbey remarks that "no one knows precisely how sentient is a pinyon pine" (79). He also personifies the desert, describing mining as shattering "the bone structure of the earth" (79). By using this kind of language, Abbey allows the reader to both visualize and begin to empathize with the plight of the desert landscape. 

The war in Vietnam haunts Hayduke, a veteran and former POW. He returns to the Southwest, his home, to "ease his vague anger" (17). Hayduke's time in the Green Berets gives him knowledge not only of explosives and firearms but an understanding of men in power. "They're not like us" (96), Hayduke explains to Smith about the developers.