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“Badeye” by Ron Rash is the narrative about childhood loss of innocence due to the fascination with snakes. Temptation arrives in the guise of a man named Badeye, who sells snowcones and offers an eight-year-old boy a beautiful, lethal coral snake in return for delivering moonshine to a client. The boy informs his father that the snake is non-venomous, but he is bit by the serpent and nearly dies. Ron Rash, through irony, symbols, and characters, depicts the story’s central theme, namely parental love.
Snakes in the story are employed as symbols, both positive and negative. For instance, Badeye is characterized as a person with one clear eye, one covered by a patch, and a serpent tattoo on his shoulder (Rash 1). This tattoo might be seen as a warning of impending danger and bad luck. The story begins in a lighthearted, ironic tone with the boy’s mother inventing crazy tales, such as “trip to the dentist with snowcone-rotted teeth,” to discourage her son from buying Badeye’s snowcones (Rash 2). These tales depict the mother’s protective instincts because she identifies Badeye as a dangerous person who delivers moonshine for the community ladies’ husbands and can be of destructive influence.
Significantly, with the assistance of his father, the main character develops an interest in collecting real snakes. The youngster emphasized that the snakes brought him and his father together. For instance, to the boy’s surprise, his dad shared his passion for reptiles and even mentioned having captured snakes as a child (Rash 5). The father sparked the boy’s curiosity by borrowing books from the college library (Rash 5). The child and his father are distant, mainly because they do not have a shared passion, but once the character captures his first snake, their connection develops (Rash 4). Therefore, snakes are employed metaphorically to express possibly the most crucial parental love in the story, the father’s love for the boy.
The mother’s concerns and worries depict the negative side of the snake symbol. Based on her study of the Bible, the boy’s mother “found enough evidence to convince her that snakes had been, since the Garden of Eden, mankind’s worst enemy” (Rash 4). She also added that her son was making pets out of snakes with the help of her husband, which she saw as additional confirmation of man’s fallen nature. The mother had anticipated that the boy’s obsession with reptiles would vanish as a passing craze after the snakes went underground for the winter. Her attempts to terrify the boy of snakes demonstrate her love for him.
Readers may appreciate the mother’s and father’s points of view since the mother was concerned about her kid, and the father wanted to spend more time with his son by participating in the same pastime. Nonetheless, the boy and his father discover the evil the kid’s mother has long suspected. Badeye displays interest in a boy by showing his king cobra tattoo on his upper arm: “the cobra uncoil slightly, its great head sway back and forth” (Rash 21). Badeye does not say much in conversations, but at this moment, where he exhibits his moving cobra tattoo, the unspoken portion is a message of danger (Rash 9). It might be the subconscious warning to the youngster about the hazards of engaging with Badeye. One night the snowcones seller promises the boy a dangerous Coral Snake in return for delivering some moonshine (Rash 9-10). The youngster agrees and stealthily tries some moonshine. In his drunkenness, overcome by the beauty of the snake as he is by the delicious taste of a snowcone, the boy is bit by the serpent and nearly dies.
Finally, the boy’s reptiles are then released back into the wild. Although his life has been saved, he must live with the realization of his fall. At the same time, Badeye, rejected by the community, slithers away like a snake to “somewhere different” (Rash 13). The narrative has a happy end because the boy is saved and the Badeye leaves Cliffside, but the temptation of evil persists, even for the child, who, as an adult in the last words, recalls “the first bite of my first snowcone” and how “nothing else has ever tasted so sweet” (Rash 13). The story’s gloomy tone and the startling cruelty amid a society divided between good and evil.
The parental love, the story’s central theme, saved the boy’s life. For instance, the youngster mentioned that after he was bitten, he quickly may have perished if the father had not been able to act decisively. The father raced into the carport in his underpants, grasped the boy’s quivering hands, and inquired as to what had happened (Rash 12). The mother stood at the doorway, asking the father what was wrong “though a part of her already knew” (Rash 12). She was shocked; the father urged her to take the boy to the hospital.
To conclude, this short story conveys profound significance through symbolism, metaphors, and the main characters. The fundamental theme is the parents’ love, conveyed via the mother’s care and the father’s and boy’s mutual hobby. Despite the symbolic temptations of evil, such as snakes and showcases, the youngster recognizes that the tragedy would have occurred if his parents had not intervened. The narrative ends well when the boy’s reptiles are returned to the wild, symbolizing safety and happiness.
Work Cited
Rash, Ron. Badeye. Ecco, 2014.
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