The Reptile Room

In this section, The Importance of Teamwork is highlighted through the ways in which each Baudelaire child contributes uniquely to accomplishing the tasks at hand, which ultimately ensures their survival as well as their success in exposing Count Olaf. The same traits that Mr. Poe criticized at the beginning of the novel end up allowing the children to make it through seemingly impossible circumstances. Klaus asks research questions and reads books to discover that the snake couldn’t have been the culprit behind Uncle Monty’s death. Violet creates a lockpick to gain access to Count Olaf’s suitcase, where she finds evidence proving he’s the murderer. Sunny uses her playfulness and her love for biting to create a diversion with the Incredibly Deadly Viper, allowing her siblings enough time to handle the rest. None of them could have accomplished all this on their own. Each of their unique abilities and contributions is necessary for the success of the group.

This section also further highlights The Vulnerability of Children. The children have to convince an adult, specifically Mr. Poe, of the truth in order to save themselves. Their fate is dependent on getting an adult to believe them. Although all three Baudelaires are children, they each have varying degrees of access to the worlds of adult knowledge, adult language, and adult logic, which they must employ in order to prevail as children in a world run by adults. Klaus has an exceptional vocabulary which helps, but he lacks the ability to get adults to listen to him because he’s dramatic, interrupts a lot, and is impatient, often making adults assume he is upset, lying, or exaggerating. Violet has a better understanding of adult etiquette and adult thinking patterns, but she is sometimes hampered by Mr. Poe’s sexism and fails to be forceful enough when the moment comes. Sunny is very perceptive, especially so for a baby, and she uses the fact that she is a baby to play into adults’ assumptions of her helplessness, as when she creates a diversion with the Incredibly Deadly Viper. Nonetheless, it is really catching Stephano in a lie that finally causes Mr. Poe to start suspecting him; the children’s evidence only comes later.

Uncle Monty gave the Incredibly Deadly Viper its name, which he tells the children is a misnomer meant to help him pull a prank on his colleagues. Ironically, the misnomer ends up providing something much more meaningful than a good joke: it helps the children create a diversion, expose Count Olaf, and save their own lives. Not only is the snake harmless and playful, as Monty promised, but it’s actually helpful, assisting the children in preserving their lives rather than threatening their lives. Throughout the novel, snakes demonstrate the theme of The Difference Between Perception and Reality, and this moment is no exception.

Snicket again differentiates The Reptile Room from stories meant for “small children” by insulting well-known tales like “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” and “Little Red Riding Hood.” He insists that this novel is much more mature and realistic, as the morals of those other stories are too “simplistic” or “foolish.”