A Snake Down Under by Glenda Adams

A Snake Down Under

A Snake Down Under is an unconventional short story that encompasses dominant cultural ideologies of early 20^th century western civilisation. Written by Glenda Adams, it is a story that is polysemous and from my interpretation is using metaphoric scenarios to explore the discourse of sex.

In all honesty, my initial reading of the text made no sense because I interpreted it literally. Growing up on a property in the bush meant understanding how to respond to a dangerous situation with a snake was important. At the beginning of the story I believed the story was about informing school students about the dangers of snakes. This initial response was the result of my personal experiences living in a middle-class remote area. As I continued reading the story I became confused as I found some of the paragraphs related to teenage girls, relationships and sex before marriage. These themes didn’t fit with my reading of the text. I reread the text foregrounding these discourses and my response changed. I read the text as being about educating teenage girls about the consequences of sex before marriage. As a female, my interpretation was influenced by my personal relationship with my mother and my understanding of the early 20^th century cultural ideology; no sex before marriage.  Understanding this ideology is the result of other texts I have read as well as the construction and representation of this belief through popular culture in western society.  

The tutorial discussion surrounding this story opened my eyes further to the meaning of the text. Everyone had a similar reading of the text; however, some students had a better understanding of the text and could relate to the foregrounded ideologies because of their personal experiences and cultural values, attitudes and beliefs.  My reading of the text remained the same; however, the discussion exposed some of the religious intertextual references within the text. I didn’t pick up on these initially because I am an atheist and did not have a religious upbringing. Understanding these references slightly altered my reading. Originally I thought the text was a modern text that was acknowledging early ideologies of the 20^th century. Now, understanding the intertextual references to religious texts and views, I believe the text would be found in the early 20^th century. It appears to me that the authors intended meaning is that sex before marriage is a sin and the consequences are extreme. 

Initially I made meaning from the literal words of the text. I took the title ‘A Snake Down Under’ as meaning snakes in Australia. The first link I made to the story being about sex was an intertextual link with a popular movie ‘Mean Girls’; however, I don’t believe the writer intended on this intertextual reference. Moon, 2009, defines intertextuality as the way different texts are linked together by reading and writing practices of a particular culture. Intertextuality helps readers make meaning of texts. In Mean Girls, there is a scene where the gym teacher is explaining what will happen if you have sex. This scene appeared in my head when I read the second paragraph where the gym teacher is explaining what to do if a ‘snake’ bites you. This intertextual link allowed me to question my initial reading of the text.

During tutorial discussion, more obvious intertextual references were exposed that I didn’t pick up on because of my non-religious background. These were references to the bible. The final line of this story is ‘My friend said, ‘Did it offer you an apple?.’’ I did not understand this line; nevertheless, during discussions I found out it is an intertextual link to Adam and Eve, and the bible. This connection was also made by other students when the story discusses a book called East of Eden. Having a thorough understanding of these intertextual references helped me to gain a clearer reading of the text and further negotiate meaning from the text.

If I used this text in a yr 12 English lesson it would be to teach literary terms including intertextuality. I would allocate a variety of texts to the class for students to discuss and analyse in small groups. This text is a challenging text to decipher and I would allocate it to the independent/gifted and talented students. The discourses of the text are relevant to teenagers and this would assist in keeping students engaged in the learning material. Being an unorthodox story it is an interesting read and students would be intrigued and challenged deciphering meaning from the text.