Snakes are the most prevalent image in Play It as It Lays. At the beginning of the novel, Maria talks about toxicity in snakes, which is usually explained as an evolutionary survival trait. She asks why a coral snake is toxic, whereas a king snake, which looks nearly identical, is not. The snake argument provides the thesis for Maria’s existential nihilism, which develops in various ways throughout the novel.

Snakes introduce an element of danger into an otherwise nonthreatening situation. Maria’s first observation about snakes is that a fellow patient spotted a pygmy rattler in the artichoke garden that morning. The juxtaposition of the rattlesnake with the image of the garden encapsulates the central paradox of Maria’s life: She finds danger where she should find safety. Whenever Maria tries to establish a home, some element of danger, usually in the form of sexual or physical abuse, destroys her sense of safety.

Images of rattlesnakes appear most frequently when Maria thinks about family and children. After her mother’s death, Maria cannot eat because her food looks like a rattlesnake coiled on her plate. When Maria thinks about growing up in Silver Wells, she recalls how her mother made her learn how to treat rattlesnake bites and how one of the most important lessons she learned growing up was that “overturning a rock was apt to reveal a rattlesnake” (200).