The techniques the author uses in ‘The Rattler’ gives the reader not only a feeling of sadness and remorse but also gives the idea that the man understands that what he did was what needed to be done. We as the readers also sense the message the author wanted to get across through their use of diction, imagery, and structure.
The author uses diction to get their meaning across and often persuade the readers to interpret those ideas in some way. The man in the story is placed in a “desert” where he encounters a serpent with a “long-range attack” and “powerful fangs.” The author then manifests a dicey scene between the man and beast to show that this character’s satisfaction does not come from taking lives. With an aura of wariness and silence, …show more content…
The author describes the pre-battle between the man and the rattler as a “furious signal, quite sportingly warning [the man] that [he] had made an unprovoked attack,” by attempting to “take his life.” The warning signal is stressed to reveal the significance of the man and snake’s value of life. The author conjures the image of how one of their lives must end in order to keep peace. In addition to this, the author then describes how “there was blood in [snake’s] mouth and poison dripping from his fangs.” This gruesome image of the snake’s impending death shows the importance of the man’s acceptance toward the snake. In a way, the reader can see the man’s sympathy toward the snake because the man should have let him go instead of killing …show more content…
The man in this story mentions how the “light was thinning; the scrub’s dry savory odors were sweet on the cooler air.” The passage gives the reader the setting with a variety of characteristics that conjures not only the peaceful surroundings of the environment, but also creating the transition of an emotion. The story moves on with a transition, focusing more on the action. With the setting being in the desert, the author makes another transition of mini-settings that gives the readers more depth and less boredom. Without any movement, the reader would lose interest easily, even if the story had an interesting concept. One of the most significant parts in the story is how the author ends it. The author concludes the final moments by “depart[ing] over the twilit sands” which leaves the reader not only closure to the story, but also a sense of vanishing life. Concluding in such way, the reader understands why the author wraps it up this way; the author’s point was to show the man’s acceptance of the snake’s death. How the author structures the story determines the reader’s idea of the story, and the theme of it as