According to Wikipedia, the original conception of the game was as a morality lesson: “where a player's progression up the board represented a life journey complicated by virtues (ladders) and vices (snakes).” In this sense, one could draw a parallel between snakes and ladders and life. read more
It’s a bit like life. Snakes take you down or backwards, and ladders take you up or forwards. In life, after you have experienced the exhilaration of a ladder, it is quite possible that you could bump into a snake. read more