Mrs. Husk is the young wife of the Texan prospector Albert T. Husk and the mother of Billy-Joe Husk. Mrs. Husk appears in Abbey’s morality tale about greed and the uranium craze. As her husband disappears into the canyons to search in vain for the lucrative mineral, she falls out of love with him and starts an affair with his business partner, Charles Graham—a love triangle that culminates in death for Husk, Graham, and Billy-Joe. Mrs. Husk’s emotional estrangement from Husk supports Abbey’s belief that, although isolation in nature can bring the right people together, this same natural isolation, if sought for reasons of greed, often leads to alienation. After her husband’s death, Mrs. Husk becomes fabulously wealthy when her husband’s land suddenly proves to be rich in uranium. This ironic ending to the Husk saga shows that the rewards of hard labor in such a money-grubbing field are often randomly bestowed rather than fairly earned.
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Mrs. Husk Character Timeline in Desert Solitaire
The timeline below shows where the character Mrs. Husk appears in Desert Solitaire. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Rocks
In Husk’s absence, Graham visits his trailer, spies on the half-dressed Mrs. Husk , and waits to meet her. Meanwhile, Husk and Billy-Joe spend the whole summer probing...
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...but soon escalates. Billy-Joe doesn’t understand the details, but he hears Graham say something about Mrs. Husk . Husk becomes enraged and attacks him, jumping through the flames of the juniper fire....
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Mrs. Husk , deprived of her husband, her son, and her lover, moves back to Texas. A...
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