The long death is the narrator’s name for the highway. This multi-laned road is a death trap that the narrator, and other animals, cannot always maneuver unscathed. The long death therefore acts as a symbol of Ecological Decay and Urban Wilderness. The highway serves the city of Los Angeles, cutting through nature, restricting the movement of wild animals. Without the freedom to move, ecological hardships, like droughts, become more severe as migration becomes more dangerous. The narrator describes the long death as being unnatural and unforgiving to all animals: “[T]he long death was a giant blurry path that led all the way up and all the way down and was always blazing with fast moving cars that killed countless creatures” (37). 

The long death is a barrier for the narrator, with no end in sight in either direction, and cars moving faster than is natural. This makes the movements of the cars hard to predict, and the prospect of crossing the highway a risky one. The long death is an example of how Los Angeles becomes a wilderness of sorts to the narrator. Just as humans see untouched nature as a wilderness, with unfamiliar and uncontrollable threats, the narrator sees the long death the same way. It is one of the many unknown and dangerous factors the narrator faces as the narrator leaves the wilderness that was once home, and moves into this new wilderness, filled with unpredictable people and the city they construct.