The rattlesnake head symbolizes nature’s unpredictability and danger. Early on in the novel, Travis remembers a day when Papa chopped the head off of a diamondback rattlesnake while baling hay, but the head continued to writhe and snap—and when Travis’s confused dog, Bell, nosed at the head, the snake’s mouth bit him and killed him with its venom. Travis recalls the decapitated rattler head in terrifying detail—and his recollection illustrates how people shouldn’t underestimate nature’s potential for unpredictability and violence. Travis learned the hard way, through watching Bell die, that the wilderness doesn’t necessarily play by the same rules as human civilization. Though these worlds intersect and depend on each other, people must not lose sight of nature’s particular perils.
The Rattlesnake Head Quotes in Old Yeller
A big diamond-back rattler struck at Papa and Papa chopped his head off with one quick lick of his scythe. The head dropped to the ground three or four feet away from the writhing body. It lay there, with the ugly mouth opening and shutting, still trying to bite something.
As smart as Bell was, you'd have thought he'd have better sense than to go up and nuzzle that rattler's head. But he didn't, and a second later, he was falling back, howling and slinging his own head till his ears popped. But it was too late then. […] He died that night, and I cried for a week.
The Rattlesnake Head Symbol Timeline in Old Yeller
