Use the passage to answer the question. Which meaning do the author's repeated references to snakes in the paragraphs convey?(1 point)

Responses

Snakes are good subjects for tattoos.
Snakes are good subjects for tattoos.

Snakes are common in the desert.
Snakes are common in the desert.

Animals should not be feared.
Animals should not be feared.

Danger is all around.
Danger is all around.
There Are Snakes Out There Juan Pablo Villalobos
The night passed like that and then the day, and then another

night, and my cousin said that we had to hold on that if we'd

held on this far we couldn't go back now, that we knew how

difficult it was going to be to cross the desert, more difficult

than the part on the train. In Oaxaca we had to sleep on the

train for part of the journey, which is really dangerous. We

were traveling up top, on the roof, for half a day and a night,

risking falling off. They say lots of people have died coming

north this way on the train. A few times we slept on the bus,

too, and others we had to sleep by the sea, on the beach, and

in Chiapas we had to sleep by the river, and sometimes, like in

Mexico City, we slept in a hotel. When we were in Mexico City

1 went out to buy something to eat and there was a group of

people in the street— think they were Zetas—and they were

clashing with the police. There was a fight right there in the

street, people with guns, with snakes in their heart


And on the third day in the desert, on the border at Sonoyta,

there were still loads of federales, lots of Immigration. At one

point | found a snake—we found a snake, | mean, me and the

people | was with, but luckily we managed to Kill it: They told

Us it had the dangerous kind of venom that could kill you


My cousin wasn't scared of the snakes and said that we hadn't

escaped from the gangs back home just to be killed by some

snake's poison. And | remembered that some of the guys in

the gangs had tattoos of snakes, snakes on their arms, or on

their backs, even on their heads or their bellies.



There are Snakes Out There” from THE OTHER SIDE: Stories
of Central American Teen Refugees Who Dream of Crossing
the Border by Juan Pablo Villalobos. Copyright © 2019 by
Juan Pablo Villalobos Alva. Reprinted by permission of Farrar,
Straus and Giroux Books For Young Readers. All Rights
Reserved

1 answer

The author's repeated references to snakes in the paragraphs convey the meaning that "Danger is all around." Snakes are used as a symbol of various threats encountered during the journey, whether they are literal snakes in the desert or the metaphorical snakes representing criminal gangs and violence in the narrator's environment. This connection emphasizes the perilous nature of the characters' experiences.