"The Snakes Are About" (#6)

     The snakes play a huge part in T.H. White's writing. In his passage, "The Snakes are about," he writes about his fascination with the grass snakes and how he surrounded himself with them in his house. He would go out and capture them and watch them make his house a home. He deeply respected them and wanted to protect them while also observing them. Throughout the passage, he continually displays his rules for domesticating wild animals while simultaneously breaking them lines later. He condemns naming wild animals or treating them as pets to not disturb the bounds of nature. He preaches this until one snake, Matilda, bonds with him and he begins to fall away from his original boundaries. He allows her to stay in his hands, names her, and she becomes protective of him around others. They build a sense of distorted trust and form a relationship that is not by natural means. It later comes a time where he has to let her go back into the wild where she is ultimately killed. While she may have developed a newfound trust of man, man did not forget their distrust of snakes.

    The snake in this passage reminded me of the symbolism of the snake in the the garden of eden. White was always drawn to the snakes and admired them but kept his distant to not disrupt the lines of nature. This is similar to how Adam and Eve watched the tree of good and evil but did not disturb it until they were tempted. The presence and comfort of the snake around his over time tempted him and he allowed himself to break his original boundaries with the snake. This disrupted the relationship between the man and the snake and they both created a trust that was not supported outside of his home. Once she was released she was ultimately killed due to her distorted view of nature and the fear of man struck her down. This is like how Adam and Eve ultimately suffered due to their disruption of nature and the order that was set before them. 

    Snakes have always been portrayed as evil or temptation throughout literature or religious text. White has a contradicting view of his relationship with the snakes as he admires them to the point of loving them to death. He goes back and forth with his beliefs and ultimately falls victim to his own desires of caring for the snake. We have a set understanding of nature and how we interact with it. Man and snake have been natural enemies throughout time. When that relationship was disturbed Matilda was not ready to be introduced back into an environment that was built against her. She had lost her instinct to fight while man still held on to their resentment. It shows the imbalance of mans nature and desire which ultimately distorts the environment around them.