Commentary On The Hopi Snake Dance

Ivan Lee Y9 Peace

“The Hopi Snake Dance” is an article written by D.H. Lawrence in the early 20th century.
“The Hopi Snake Dance” is not a book itself but instead it’s a chapter in one of D.H.
Lawrence’s novel called “Mornings in Mexico”. In “The Hopi Snake Dance”, the author talks
about his adventures in Mexico and the exploration of their culture. Throughout the article,
the author mainly focuses on watching the snake dances and describing their culture in
paramount detail. The author watched the snake dance among a crowd that's eager for
thrills and is often excited by the nearness of danger. During the time of writing, the World
War I has just ended (1914 -1918) but took place during the last burst of colonialism (1920s-
1930s). D.H. Lawrence was an outstanding observer and his travel writings are among his
finest piece. His novels are often written to show the concern of American Southwestern
people and places.

The Hopi Snake Dance is known as a Native American religious tradition. The history of
this tradition goes back thousands of years into ancient times. According to many critics, the
people who became the Native Americans are usually migrated from Asia across a land
bridge that may have once connected the territories presently occupied by Alaska and
Russia. The historical development of religious belief systems among Native Americans is
not well known as most of the information gathered by Europeans only arrived on the
continent in the early sixteenth century. The data they recorded was incomplete and
sometimes inaccurate because the Europeans did not understand the native cultures they
were trying to describe and the Native Americans were unwilling to reveal details about
themselves.

The purpose of the article is to show the dying culture of Mexico and to preserve it.
Throughout the article, the author can be seen to be constantly talking about the snake
dance. An example of this can be seen when the author wrote “Came another young black-
faced man out of the confusion, with another snake dangling…At the end of the third round
the young priest stooped and delicately laid hid snake on the earth.” The fact that the author
has described the dance in such detailed shows the readers his sensational observing skills
and to really give the readers an in-depth view of the culture, thus shows how interesting and
exciting this dying culture really is.

This article also wishes to give the readers a more improved visual imagery of Mexico. An
example of this can be seen when the author wrote “Today, the eight antelope-priests were
very grey. Their feet ashed pure grey, like suede soft boots... an unearthly grey row of men
with little skin bags in their hands.” In this passage, the author has successfully described
the details of the antelope priests costumes and gestures. This helps the readers to possess
better visual imagery of the situation as the situation is described in paramount detail.
 The target audience of the article are people who are interested in the Mexican culture or
specifically people who are interested in the snake dance. We know this because since the
whole article is known for its detailed description of his experiences in Mexico and the snake
dances, it would be smart to name them the target audience.

The tone of the article is written in an ambivalent tone. The word ‘ambivalent’ means
having mixed feelings or different ideas about something or someone. However, in this case,
the word ‘ambivalent’ means to have a love-hate relationship. We know that the tone of the
article is ambivalent because the author really wants this Mexican culture to be brought back
to life but he wasn’t sure whether dancing with snakes was an appropriate idea or not. The
author also quotes that the Mongolian people ‘couldn’t accept us’ as they are from different
nationalities. In brief, the author doesn’t think that dancing with snakes would really appeal to
the people and that this religious culture doesn’t just welcome everyone or anyone which
explains why the author has an uncertain kind of tone in his article.

Throughout the article, the author can be seen using metaphor to further emphasize his
experiences in Mexico. This is known when the author says “They were lords of shadow, the
intermediate twilight, the place of after-life and before-life, where house the winds of change.
Lords of mysterious, fleeting power of change.” Here the author can be seen using metaphor
to comparing men’s to gods. The purpose of metaphor here is to show how powerful this
culture truly is.

In conclusion, the author can be seen successful in describing this fading culture and his
experiences in Mexico through the use of metaphor and an ambivalent tone.