A decision has the capability of changing everything affecting not only you but the
people and things around you, maybe even changing the way you see yourself as well. In the
short story “The Rattler” by Donald Peattie, the man didn't want to harm the snake but was
concerned about the safety of his children , animals , ranch and etc. You can comprehend why
the man had to remove the snake from the farm, but can't understand why he had to kill the
snake.(There were many other ways that the snake could have been removed from the farm
without harming him.) The man contradicts everything that he stood for in the story. He claims
to have never killed or thought of killing anything his whole life, but wants to do what
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The sight of the snake is so heartbreaking that even the man is left to rethink
what he has just done . It must have been one gruesome sight . “Then for a moment I could see
him as I might have let him go” . The man feels sympathy for the snake and what he has done.
He is proud of the fact that he did not cut the rattle tail off of the snake for a trophy. It doesn't
make what he did to the snake any better. He wishes that he didn't kill the snake and is left to
wonder what would have happened if he just let the snake go.
In the short story passage entitled “The Rattler,” language and details about the man and
the snake made me feel empathy towards the man and sympathy towards the snake. You feel
empathy for the man, because he went out of his way to try and kill the snake even though he
wasn't harming anyone. One can understand that the man did it to protect his family in the long
run,but you can't help but think that there were other ways to get rid of the snake besides
In the book Rikki crushes all but one egg of Nagaina’s to bribe Nagaina into staying away from the kid. Rikki said, “What’sthe price for a snake’s egg? For a young cobra? For a king cobra? For the last-the very last of the brood? The ants are eating all the others by the melon bed.” Also in the book the snake flees with the egg trying to outrun Rikki. In the book it states, “He had forgotten about the egg. It lay on the veranda and Nagaina came nearer and nearer to it, til at last, while Rikki-Tikki was drawing breath, She caught it in her mouth, turned to the veranda steps, and flew like an arrow down the path.” Also in the movie the mongoose booked it right into the snake hole where many mongooses never come out. (movie) The movie shows “Rikki chasing Nagaia down a hole where the snake lived.” Also in the movie Rikki killed Nagaina, and whatever cobra ever dared to try to threaten him or the family. In conclusion that is how the Resolution is related to the book and the
...ife, and he does not want to end up like them. He says, “It’s sad, in a way. I wish I could assure the Porter and the McGlocklins and all the others that we can be friends as long as we like, but that I won’t be taking up serpents anymore. I refuse to be a witness to suicide, particularly my own. I have two daughters to raise, and a vocation in the world” (238). He finally acknowledges his place in the world, is ready and happy to fulfill his calling.
This adds to the reader’s sympathy because he didn’t provoke the man’s attack and did nothing to deserve what happened to him. He was punished despite being completely innocent. Though the snake does not pose a direct threat, he is an extremely powerful creature and a great asset to the beauty of nature. He “felt no necessity of getting out of anybody’s path,” showing his confidence in himself. Though he is confident, he is not arrogant. He does not cower at the sight of the man, nor does he try to threaten him. He simply stands his ground confidently, waiting for the man to dictate his next move. This trait of the snake causes the reader to respect him and appreciate his position of power, reinforcing their sympathetic feelings. The snake’s death was slow and painful, and the author described all of the gruesome details in order to further affect the reader. The man himself admits that “it was a nasty sight”. First, he hacked about in the paper bag bush until he “dragged
The effect the reader perceives in the passage of Rattler is attained from the usage of the author¡¯s imagery. The author describes the pre-action of the battle between the man and the snake as a ¡°furious signal, quite sportingly warning [the man] that [he] had made an unprovoked attack, attempted to take [the snake¡¯s] life... ¡± The warning signal is portrayed in order to reveal the significance of both the man¡¯s and the snake¡¯s value of life. The author sets an image of how one of their lives must end in order to keep the world in peace. In addition, the author describes how ¡°there was blood in [snake¡¯s] mouth and poison dripping from his fangs; it was all a nasty sight, pitiful now that it was done.¡± This bloody image of snake¡¯s impending death shows the significance of the man¡¯s acceptance toward the snake. In a sense, the reader can interpret the man¡¯s sympathy toward the snake because of the possibility that he should have let him go instead of killing him.
The story explains that mongooses are curious, so Rikki spent his time exploring everything in the house. When exploring outside, Rikki meets a bird that explains to him that one of his babies fell out of the nest and was eaten by Nag, the cobra. That night, Rikki overhears the cobras’ plans to kill the family, so that Rikki would leave and they could take over the garden. Nag sleeps in the bathroom overnight, planning to kill Teddy’s dad in the morning; Rikki attacks him, causing the father to wake up and shoot Nag, saving the family. Rikki also helps save the family by distracting Nag’s widow, Nagaina, as she was about to attack, eventually killing her as well. The family was very thankful, as he had saved all of their lives.
Kimbrough, David L. Taking up Serpents: Snake Handlers of Eastern Kentucky. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1995. Print.
Marciano knows how lethal the bomb is and knows what the nuclear bomb is capable of. He is very afraid, but he knows his mission at this point; he has to save his country and be the hero of his great nation. It was a tragic day for Johnny, even though he stayed focused and confident. When Marciano looked at profile of The Snakes, he found out that they were extremely violent, deadly, harmful, psychotic, and on the FBI’s most wanted list. They have a record of holding hostages, killing innocent people, robbing, arson, identity theft, hacking websites, stealing credit cards, and having large amounts of cocaine.
Goodman Brown heads down a “dreary road...” (311). He is then approached by his fellow traveler, who happens to be the devil. The devil had with him “a staff that bore the likeness of a great black snake" (312). The devil tries to convince Goodman
The comparison of the rattlesnake to a bigger, more frightening, and yet less deadly creature makes the former seem dangerous. While a blacksnake would “flee at the sight of a man”, the rattler proved its fearlessness with the way he “held his ground”. The rattler is cocky, and for good reason, because his poison could kill the man much easier than the theoretical blacksnake could. The man is in a life-threatening situation and the reader is likely to sympathize with his fear and worry. The author uses violent diction when describing the snake to make us see him as a vicious creature, in need of killing to keep others safe. Even dead, the rattler “may still bite”. He needs to be kept as far as possible from people - especially vulnerable people, such as young children - in order to protect them. The author includes this hostile wording to bring awareness to the fact that the snake is remorseless, even in death, and that taking its life is noble and just. Finally, the snake’s “little song of death” is personified negatively by the man to show that the snake is the villain in the story. Life is, according to the rattlesnake, “dear and would be dearly sold”. It comes to light in this phrase that the snake is looking for revenge from the man’s actions. The rattler is not as innocent as he may have initially seemed. As he attempts at the man’s life to bring
This creates empathy for the man because he doesn’t have any advice and is unable to consider the direct opinions of other people. The snake, on the other hand, does not need to consider any outside opinions. The setting makes it seem like the snake is a hermit, living far away from the troubles of
Ménez, Andre’. The Subtle Beast: Snakes, from Myth to Medicine. New York, New York: CRC Press, 2003.
Rikki Tikki Tavi demonstrates many acts of bravery to show that he is the one true hero in the story. For example, the narrator states that “...Karait had lunged too far, and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi had sprung, jumped on the snake’s back, dropped his head far between his forelegs, bitten as high up as the back as he could get hold, and he rolled away. The bite paralyzed Karait,” (Kipling 133-134). This was an important act because this is when Rikki not only killed the dangerously fast and small snake, Karait, but also saved Teddy’s life. Teddy would have been killed or seriously injured by the snake, but Rikki was brave and went in for the kill, which ended with
Bravery was revealed all throughout The Snake Charmer and to Joe Slowinski “... to be afraid: It just wasn’t in his nature.” (James 13). Periodically throughout the book, Slowinski experiences scenarios of great stupid, but extreme, bravery. An example of this is his constant use of bare snake wrestling, not using his snake grappling hook. Surprisingly so, even with a snake bitten infected right hand, Joe “...still managed to catch another Copperhead, left handed.” (52). Joe Slowinski was a brave man, even if it came at the worst of times, such as the time he “... absentmindedly thrust his right hand into the sack to extract a snake…” (8) which ultimately lead to his sad, yet ironic death.
Alex keeps coming back to his snake after his nights on the town, and his first
... Nature, including human beings, is `red in tooth and claw'; we are all `killers' in one way or another. Also, the fear which inhabits both human and snake (allowing us, generally, to avoid each other), and which acts as the catalyst for this poem, also precipitates retaliation. Instinct, it seems, won't be gainsaid by morality; as in war, our confrontation with Nature has its origins in some irrational `logic' of the soul. The intangibility of fear, as expressed in the imagery of the poem, is seen by the poet to spring from the same source as the snake, namely the earth - or, rather, what the earth symbolizes, our primitive past embedded in our subconsciouness. By revealing the kinship of feelings that permeates all Nature, Judith Wright universalises the experience of this poem.