In The Land of Little Rain, Mary Hunter Austin does not just describe in great detail what she sees in the Sierras of Southern California. It is her mission to create a sense of awe among her target audience, the people of the civilized world who would never have time to carefully observe what she has observed. Throughout the text, she presents examples of there being more than meets the eye--if one only carefully observes. For example, she surprises the reader right at the beginning: "There are many areas in the desert where drinkable water lies within a few feet of the surface, indicated by the mesquite and the bunch grass." Moreover, she gives countless examples of animals living in the desert, which is usually considered a rather hostile environment. Even in winter, when the land is covered in snow, there "is always more life abroad [...] than one looks to find, and much more in evidence than in summer weather."
Additionally, by using a myriad of metaphors and personifications, Austin creates a feeling that the land itself is alive: "The lake is the eye of the mountain, jade green, placid, unwinking, also unfathomable. Whatever goes on under the high and stony brows is guessed at." Describing the thunderstorms, she remarks, "The same season brings the rains that have work to do, ploughing storms that alter the face of things. [...] They come with great winds that try the pines for their work upon the seas and strike out the unfit."
Because nature seems to be alive, she suggests that God himself (or at least a higher spiritual entity) is behind this beauty. Hinting at the book of Genesis, she praises God: "The mesquite is God's best thought in all this desertness." Describing a mountain range, she creates a sense of wonder: "When those glossy domes swim into the alpenglow, wet after rain, you conceive how long and imperturbable are the purposes of God." She dramatizes particularly awesome experiences such as thunderstorms, calling them "the fume of the gods rising from their meeting place under the rim of the world" and "the visible manifestation of the Spirit moving itself in the void." At one point she even compares the thunderstorms with the apocalypse to emphasize their devastating power. However, she is equally impressed by the purity of the land: "For one thing there is the divinest, cleanest air to be breathed anywhere in God's world."
If nature is God's work, she concludes that humans must live in harmony with it to become one with God. It is only logical that she describes civilized people in a rather condescending way, claiming that they will never understand and fully appreciate this land because their camping trips are too short ("But the real heart and core of the country are not to become at in a month's vacation"). In contrast, she glorifies the simple folk and Indians who have found their place in nature and do not exploit what grants them life. She describes the ideal way of life by presenting the seemingly utopian town of El Pueblo de Las Uvas, where houses are made of earth, and people live without any crime or class distinction, borrowing what they need from one another. Therefore, her book ends with this message for her target audience, the civilized people: "Come away, you who are obsessed with your own importance in the scheme of things, and have got nothing you did not sweat for, come away by the brown valleys and full-bosomed hills to the even-breathing days, to the kindliness, earthiness, ease of El Pueblo de Las Uvas."
