The Rattler By Donald Beattie Analysis

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“The Rattler” is a story that is written by Donald Beattie that expresses a survival and protective tone to persuade readers to side with the man that killed the snake in order to protect a larger community of animals and humans. Beattie is presenting the story to a large group of people in attempt to persuade them. Beattie uses imagery, simile, and pathos to develop a root of persuasion and convince the audience to reanalyze the man’s actions. Beattie persuade the audience through imagery. Throughout the story Beattie describes vividly the scene of when the man encountered the snake, allowing the reader to “paint” a visual in their head. In the 1st paragraph, “The scrub’s dry savory odors were sweet on the cooler air…” Beattie describes the scene of what the location of the occurrence was like and how the area produce a smell, granting the reader the ability to imagine what smell the location produced. In the 5th paragraph, “Quicker than I could strike he shot into a dense bush and set up his rattling…” Beattie describes the scene in great …show more content…

Beattie expresses the how the man felt about the snake and the community that he wanted to protect. In paragraph 4, “I have never killed an animal I was not obliged to kill… But I reflected that there were children, dogs, horses at the ranch, as well as men and women lightly shod; my duty…kill the snake…” Beattie is expressing the mans feelings about killing and how the mans character prevented him from killing. In addition to the mans character, Beattie adds in the factor to obtain sympathy for the man’s actions by listing all the characters that the man is protecting through his “courageous” actions. In the 7th paragraph, “I did not cut the rattles off for trophy; I let him drop into the close green companionship of the paper-bag bush…” Beattie expresses the self guilt that the man had about killing the snake to tell readers about the man’s original

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