Essay on the short story: "The Rattler"

One can have conflicting encounters with Nature. While some are gay and amusing, others can be depressing and unsettling. "The Rattler" describes a rueful encounter between a man and a snake. The man in the passage is torn between allegiances to his duty and his feelings. The man, at length, decides to obey his sense of duty, and proceeds to kill the snake. After killing the snake, he recounts his decision and comes to regret …

…man, the snake, and the setting to "invite" the reader to feel sympathetic toward the snake, as well as the man, although he did kill the snake. The passage also uses language and details to discreetly free the man from the reader's outraged conscience for hard-heartedly killing the snake. Thus, by making practical use of details the passage manages to have the reader regard the regretful man more warmly and mourn for the snake's death.