Ron Rash’s short story ‘Badeye’ intricately weaves together the theme of rebellion through the ironic use of snakes, as an unlikely bond forms between father and son over the reptiles, ending with the bitter, extended metaphor of a venomous snake bite. Rash first introduces the father character, who remains nameless, as a loving but emotionally distant parental figure, having tried but failed multiple times in the past to bond with his son. However, after the eight-year-old son discovers the new hobby of snake collecting, the father begins to take a new interest, and together they form a bond. But as the story progresses, the deeply religious mother character is staunchly opposed to the idea of snakes being in her house and demands that her husband forbid their son from collecting snakes. The father is left with a difficult choice: give up his new-found bond with his son and conform to his wife’s wishes, or rebel against her and side with his son? The story answers the question of whether or not all the consequences of rebellion are negative. …show more content…
He is introduced as emotionally distant, mostly consumed by daydreams and artistic endeavors. He attempts to bond with his son through pottery, but his son is uninterested, expressing the wish that his father took him fishing like other parents. Because of their lack of mutual interests, this causes the son to speak out in the company of Badeye, a bootlegger who sells snow cones to children. Badeye himself is a symbol of rebellion, as he openly defies the law by selling alcohol in a prohibition state while at the same time selling sugary treats to the children of mothers who repeatedly begged him not