The Rattler takes the reader on the mental journey the narrator experiences. Throughout the excerpt, he travels great distances in his mind, ending up in places he didn't even know existed. Encountering a snake that poses a threat to his ranch forces the narrator to go against his morals and kill the snake for the greater good. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay At first, he knows very clearly that killing the snake is wrong. Its first instinct is to be passive and let the snake continue on its way. He has no desire to inflict any violence on this creature. Thinking about the people at the ranch, he decides he must kill the snake, although he is reluctant to do so. As the narrator approaches the snake, his mind shifts, perhaps returning to his natural human instincts, which are to kill or be killed. When the narrator attacks the snake, he does so with newfound fury. He hacks the snake with the hoe and breaks its neck without hesitation. When the narrator first chose the hoe as his method of getting rid of the snake, he did so to ensure that the snake had at least a chance of surviving. If he had used a gun, the snake would have had no chance of surviving. To give the serpent a fair fight was to give it a proud and noble death. However, by the end of the passage, the man has changed his mental state to one that views the death of the serpent as a victory for himself. He doesn't even respect the snake enough to turn his rattles into a trophy that rewards the good fight he fought. Instead, the narrator drops him into a bush, neglecting him. As he does this, he sees the snake as if he had released it. His primal impulses have faded and he becomes non-violent towards the snake again, although it is too late. The narrator's vision of the snake reveals the final mental transition of the story. This reveals that the man was not fighting a snake; he was fighting against himself. The reason the narrator personifies the snake is because he sees the snake as himself. The snake represents the nonviolent side of the narrator, the side that the narrator wishes to be. The snake initially acts calmly towards the narrator and only attacks when provoked, showing that it only acts violently when in defense. When the narrator kills the snake, he kills the part of himself that had nonviolent tendencies. In an act of violence, he destroys the part of him that was passive and he gives in to the human instinct to kill. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized paper now from our expert writers. Get a personalized essay. The vision the narrator sees after killing the snake is him thinking about what could have been. If he had let the snake live, his peaceful side might have lived on as well. He describes the snake as self-respecting as he imagines it leaving with its life. This shows how he could have continued to respect himself if he had not given in to his desire to kill. If he had let the snake live, he could have been mentally free, just as the snake would have been physically free. However, by killing the snake, he cursed himself with a mental burden that will always be stuck in his mind, just like the snake will forever be stuck in the paper bag bush..