In 1977, Guo Xuebo entered the Central Insti-tute of Drama in Beijing. After graduating in 1980,he became a research fellow at the Literary Re-search Institute of the Chinese Academy of SocialSciences, specializing in Mongolian history, cultureand literature. Two years later, circumstances andhis love of creative writing brought him to return toHorqin. But the serious desertification of the areaworried him greatly. He wrote: "My homeland,the so-called Horqin Grassland, used to be quitewell known. The waves of green plants, the whiteclouds, the cattle, the vast and wonderful grass-lands stir the soul with their beauty. Now they areall fading away, transformed into a sea of sand thatstretches for four hundred kilometers, one of thetwelve largest deserts in the country. After inspect-雲，這裏變成了十年九旱的枯旱地，黃沙侵吞了綠野，這裏的生命遭到了最無情的迫害。與風沙的生存競爭中，人與人、人與獸、獸與獸之間的關係更加變得狹窄和互不相容，弱肉強食、爾虞我詐的現象在這裏顯得更為激烈，時時奏出人、自然、生命間的生死交響曲。”
郭雪波就是懷著這般憂患意識開始對人、自然、生存意義的哲學思考。他找到了屬於自己的領地 沙漠，找到了自己的追求、探索的創作方向。即使他到北京工作後，他仍每年和妻兒一起回家鄉一次， 為了自己的創作選擇，他不斷關注沙漠的命運。
沙漠不光是來沙漠的郭雪波所關注的，也是整個人類所關注的。
人類文明正在突飛猛進，可是人類卻愈來愈陷入自己造成的生存困境：耕地、森林、動植物品種等等都在迅速減少，全世界37％的土地已被沙漠吞沒，正如郭雪波中篇小說《沙葬》中的治沙專家白海說的：“依我看啊，人們像一群螞蟻，掏完了這塊兒地，再搬到另外一塊兒地掏，全掏空拉倒。”地球上的幾塊陸地日益沙ing the area, UN inspectors referred to it as a 'ter-rible miracle'. Who created this miracle? Thatquestion has baffled local officials and farmers.People have to live; they have to plow up the grass-land to grow grain. As the thin layer of vegetationis dug up, a dormant monster, the desert, is un-leashed. As a result, the wind has blown away theclouds and the rain, reducing the land to a land ofdrought. The yellow sand has swallowed the greenwilderness and subjected life to the most savage de-struction. The life-and-death struggle with windand sand has caused relationships between man andman, man and animals, and between animalsthemselves to become ever narrower and cruder.
In his anguish Guo embarked on a philosophi-cal examination of man, nature and the meaning ofexistence. His own domain-the desert-pro-vides the stimulus for his creativity. He is now set-tied in Beijing, but his persistent interest in thedesert prompts him to make annual visits home withhis wife and child.
The desert is not solely the concern of thoseborn there, but is the concern of all mankind.
As civilization advances, man becomes in-creasingly ensnared in the predicaments of existencethat he has created for himself: farmland, forests,flora and fauna are decreasing drastically. Thirty-化，就像惡魔一樣緊緊跟隨著人類。
沙漠題材幾乎注定廠郭雪波小說的悲劇性內容。
《沙孤》 老沙頭和他的t一八九歲的女兒沙柳成年累月在沙漠裏看管那些幸存的沙地植物，他們唯一的夥伴隻有一隻老沙孤。老沙孤是裏鼠的天敵、而野鼠一繁殖起來，泛濫成災，在沙佗子裏好不容易培植起來的植物就被它們啃得一幹二淨，沙漠越一來越擴展不幸，林場大胡子任銀本不理解這隻沙孤的重要性和老沙頭父女倆對這隻老沙孤的深情厚誼，偏要來這裏打獵，甚至開槍射殺了這隻老沙狐。這實際是一場災難，
中篇《沙狼》寫打獵頭一金嘎達老漢的同夥在打死四五隻狼患後，母狼偷走了他那剛二歲的外孫狗娃喂養成狼孩狼孩在十歲時吃了外公浸酒的雞肉後醉倒，被綁回關在籠子裏，由媽媽懷著人性的母愛耐心調教，其獸性雖有所收斂，但他還是經不住尋來的老母狼的再三召喚，就在他重新撲向母狼的懷抱時，被懷著嫉恨的外公一槍打死。後來金嘎達老漢也在和老母seven percent of the world's land area has alreadybeen swallowed by desert. As Bai Hai, the desertcontrol expert in "The Sand Burial", says, "Peopleare like ants, digging up one piece of land after an-other until the whole earth is hollow. " The gradualdestruction of the remaining land haunts mankind.
The desert theme sets the tragic tone in GuoXuebo's works.
"The Sand Fox" is the story of Old Sandy Manand his 19-year-old daughter Willow who havespent many years looking after the surviving desertplants and whose sole companion is an old sandfox, the natural enemy of the rats. If the rats mul-tiply, the dune plants that have been cultivatedwith so much difficulty will be eaten up and thedesert will grow larger than ever. Unfortunately,Beardy, the chief of the Forestry Center, does notunderstand the importance of the sand fox and therelationship between fox, father and daughter. Heinsists on hunting in the area and in the end the foxis shot, which spells a disaster for the environment.
"The Desert Wolf" is about Old Jingad, thechief hunter, and his fellows. When some of thehunters killed five wolf cubs, the mother wolf stolethe chief's two-year-old grandson Gouwa andbrought him up as a wolf child. When the boy wasten years old, he was captured after becoming狼的搏鬥中同歸於盡！這篇意蘊豐富的小說包含著多層次的思想感情內容，但不管我們從哪個角度去看，都是悲劇
《沙葬》以雲燈喇嘛尋找寵犬“白孩兒”貫穿始終，寫白狗經不起饑餓和民兵連長鐵巴的追殺而逃作白狼；另一位遭受迫害的知識分子白海 他為了畫一張沙漠百草根係圖，在深挖錦雞兒草的根係時被塌沙埋沒身死；表麵冷漠，內心卻十分善良、智慧的雲燈喇嘛，也被一場可怕的沙暴淹沒了 又是沙葬！
《火宅》寫在那大漠之鄉，有一位年老的沙鄉統治者，他濫施淫威，蹂瑙了幾多年輕姑娘和媳婦，播下了幾多野種，養出了幾多私生子。其中有個外號叫“黑沙豹”的青年和另一位外號叫“獨眼女”的姑娘舉起了複仇反抗的旗幟，以邪對邪，以惡製惡。他們盜牛販牛，以謀求生路；他們不明真相而彼此相愛，生育出更為可悲的第二代私生子，最後，當他們的努力歸於失敗時，為憤恨而閹割了生父，並將其赤身懸掛示眾，然後雙雙臥軌……
在郭雪波其他小說中也大多是悲劇性
drunk on chicken soaked in wine which had beenprepared by his grandfather. The grandfather tiedhim up and kept him in a cage. Although the childbecame tamer under his mother's care, the she-wolfkept harassing him with her calls. Just as the childwas about to throw himself into the wolf's em-brace, the grandfather, in his rage, shot him. OldJingad himself later perished in a deadly fight withthe mother wolf. The story arouses many thoughtsand feelings, but however you look at it, it is atragedy.
The main theme in "The Sand Burial' con-cerns the search by Yundeng Lama for his pet dogWhite Boy. Driven by starvation and hunted by themilitia chief Tie Ba, White Boy runs away and be-comes a white wolf. Bai Hai, a persecuted intellec-tual, is buried under an avalanche while digging upa grass root needed for his research. The protago-nist, the seemingly apathetic but kind and wiseYundeng Lama, is buried alive in a terrible sand-storm.
The Fiery Residence tells of an aged head of avillage on the sands who exploits his power overwomen and produces a string of illegitimate chil-dren. Finally, two of them, Black Sand Leopardand One-eyed Woman, rise up in revenge. In orderto survive they steal and sell cattle. They fall in的。這些悲劇不僅是沙漠等大自然神秘力量所造成的，顯然，它們更多的是人自己造成的，因此已們給人的啟示和教訓也就更為嚴重和深刻。
不過，郭雪波小說的悲劇不同於一般的悲劇，我們讀了他的小說，常常為它們嚴肅的內涵陷入沉思，或為且惡義憤填膺，或為平凡而又堅強的人物欽佩不已。他的小說的悲劇不同於一般悲劇，還有個重要原因，即他將宗教的哲學和情感引進了小說。《火宅》卷首引佛經雲：“三界無安，猶如火宅。”整部書就是把沙漠人間喻成“火宅”。凡俗世界如此這般折騰、多蚌、昏暗無日、苦海無邊，不正如煙熏火燎之宅？掙紮、焦灼、不安與恐懼交織，求生與希冀混雜，紛紛揚揚中，呼呼拉拉裏，火宅燒淨，人生渡盡。
郭雪波的小說常常寫到動植物，沙漠中的動植物幾乎都寫到了，且寫得十分生動。這不僅是因為沙漠中的動植物十分稀罕和寶貴，作者很喜歡它們，甚至也不僅是作者為了通過動植物以映現書中的人物，還因為 正如《沙love without knowing their origins and produce an-other generation of bastards. Finally, when alltheir efforts end in failure, they castrate their fa-ther, hang up his naked body, and then commitsuicide on the railway tracks.