[
 {
  "chunk": 227,
  "story": 20,
  "summary": "An epigraph from an old book of marvels claims that a serpent's eye has a magnetic power that draws its victim forward against his will to his death.",
  "predicament": "An old superstition claims that some dangers draw their victims toward them against their own will, however they resist."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 228,
  "story": 20,
  "summary": "A guest reading the passage scoffs at it, then notices two points of light under his bed that grow brighter and nearer; they are the eyes of a large coiled snake staring at him.",
  "predicament": "Someone who has just scoffed at a superstition finds the very thing it describes staring straight at them."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 229,
  "story": 20,
  "summary": "The guest, a rich, athletic traveller, is staying with a scientist friend who keeps a wing full of reptiles, from which his wife and daughters are excluded.",
  "predicament": "Someone staying as a guest with a friend has taken little notice of the dangerous things kept under the same roof."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 230,
  "story": 20,
  "summary": "Warned that snakes sometimes escape, the guest thinks of ringing for a servant, but does not, lest he be suspected of fear; he cannot tell whether the snake is dangerous.",
  "predicament": "Someone faced with a danger they cannot judge will not call for help, in case it looks like fear."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 231,
  "story": 20,
  "summary": "He resolves to back quietly out of the room, but as he lifts his foot he feels an aversion to retreating, asking himself whether bravery is only pride and whether he will retreat because no one is watching.",
  "predicament": "Someone about to retreat sensibly from danger stops, ashamed to back away even when nobody is there to see."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 232,
  "story": 20,
  "summary": "Declaring he is not so great a coward as to fear seeming afraid to himself, he tries to step back but steps forward instead, again and again, dragging the chair, as the snake's eyes blaze and he hears strange music.",
  "predicament": "Someone who refused to back away from danger finds themselves drawn toward it step by step against their will."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 233,
  "story": 20,
  "summary": "He sees visions, including a crowned serpent with his dead mother's eyes, then falls on his face; the fall breaks the spell, but the thought of the unseen snake is so horrible that he looks again, and is held once more.",
  "predicament": "Someone who breaks free of a terror for a moment cannot bear not to look at it, and is caught again."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 234,
  "story": 20,
  "summary": "He writhes and froths on the floor, inching ever closer to the snake; downstairs, the scientist tells his wife about a new snake-eating snake and scoffs at the superstition of snakes' fascination.",
  "predicament": "Someone is being destroyed by their own terror only a floor away from people who laugh at the very idea."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 235,
  "story": 20,
  "summary": "Terrible cries ring through the house; they find the guest dead with his face under the bed, and the scientist pulls out the snake. It is stuffed, with shoe buttons for eyes.",
  "predicament": "Someone dies of terror at a danger that was never real, killed by nothing but their own fear and pride."
 }
]