Wanting to transform

America's independency not only can be traced through history, but also through literature. Since the Revolutionary War, America becomes it's own country, breaking away from England. However, literature progressed slower. It still fed off of other countries. It fed off of other countries until, as Eric Carl Link says in his article "Nationalism," "after the American victory in the War of 1812 [when] a host of America's leading intellectuals... collectively promoted the building of a native tradition in literature" (List 803). This shows that America wanted to become a literary superpower. It wanted to transform itself and become its own being.

In "The Snake," by Theodore Roethke, the audience sees that the narrator wants to transform into a snake. The poem shows the beauty of this creature. The lust for being a snake is shown through it's tempting descriptions. Then, near the end, the narrator states, "I longed to be that thing," expressing his curiosity and longing to be a snake.

These two ideas relate because both America and the narrator long to transform into another element. America wants independence while the poem suggests that the narrator years to be a snake. These two relate because of their determination that they will change. America, eventually, becomes independent through literature, whereas the audience of "The Snake" must wonder whether the narrator does become a snake. If the determination of the narrator matches that of America's "leading intellectuals" (List 803), they may assume that the narrator does, in fact, transform into a snake.