The Rats By James Herbert
"The Rats" is a horror novel set in London in the 1990's. The story is about extraordinary large rats who begin to attack humans and devour them. The story begins with the rats' first attack. A salesman, who was rejected by the man he loved, takes to alcoholism. His life gradually goes 'downhill' and he ends up sleeping rough on the street. While sleeping in a back alley, he is attacked by these huge rats and eaten alive. The main character, Harris, is then introduced. Harris is an art teacher at the local primary school. When one of his pupils is bitten by one of the rats, Harris offers to take him to hospital. The pupil later dies of 'Weil's Disease.' Harris is asked to help deal with their predicament by Foskins from the Ministry of Health. As Harris grew up in the area, he knew it quite well and volunteered to show the exterminators where about his pupil saw the rats. Gradually, the attacks became more frequent, more public and bloodier. The rats began attacking trains, zoos and the school Harris worked at. Foskins' team of scientists and experts came up wi
In this novel the rats are given qualities which make them seem human like, "more rats came into the small kitchen but these were different. These were bigger, moving more cautiously, ignoring the violent struggle with the dog." In this incident the rats are described as 'cautious' which shows that they have the intelligence to look out for grave danger. "their cunning. Twice that day, one of the big, black rats had just stood and stared at him (had it been the same one each time? Christ!) not cowering, nor preparing to attack, but just surveying him, seemingly studying him, inscrutable." Here the author describes the rats as having the intelligence to be able to "survey" its prey. This is unusual, as it would usually be the other way around. I was surprised at this, the description of the rats as being intelligent, as rats seem a simple race and aren't usually thought to have much intelligence. I think that Herbert is shrewd to create animals with unusual abilities to emphasise the fact that these rats are almost paranormal, as they are bigger and smarter than
Some common words found in the essay are:
James Herbert's, , Life Londoners, Harris Foskins', Health Harris, Disease' Harris, rats intelligence, species humans, school harris,
Approximate Word count = 718
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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