Editing Rat (section)

===Fiction===
{{See also|Fancy rat#Fiction}}
[[File:Alaska Death Trap.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Imperial Japan]] depicted as a rat in a [[World War II]] United States Navy propaganda poster]]
Depictions of rats in fiction are historically inaccurate and negative. The most common falsehood is the squeaking almost always heard in otherwise realistic portrayals (i.e. non[[anthropomorphic]]). While the recordings may be of actual squeaking rats, the noise is uncommon – they may do so only if distressed, hurt, or annoyed. Normal vocalizations are very high-pitched, well outside the range of human hearing. Rats are also often cast in vicious and aggressive roles when in fact, their shyness helps keep them undiscovered for so long in an infested home.

The actual portrayals of rats vary from negative to positive with a majority in the negative and ambiguous.<ref name="clute">{{cite book|last=Clute|first=John|author2=John Grant |title=The Encyclopedia of Fantasy|publisher=St. Martin's Griffin|date=March 15, 1999|page=642|isbn=978-0-312-19869-5 }}</ref> The rat plays a villain in several mouse societies; from Brian Jacques's ''[[Redwall]]'' and Robin Jarvis's ''[[The Deptford Mice]]'', to the roles of Disney's [[The Great Mouse Detective#Voice cast|Professor Ratigan]] and Kate DiCamillo's [[The Tale of Despereaux|Roscuro]] and [[The Tale of Despereaux (film)|Botticelli]]. They have often been used as a mechanism in horror; being the titular evil in stories like ''[[The Rats (novel)|The Rats]]'' or H.P. Lovecraft's ''[[The Rats in the Walls]]''<ref name="clute"/> and in films like ''[[Willard (1971 film)|Willard]]'' and ''[[Ben (1972 film)|Ben]]''. Another terrifying use of rats is as a method of [[rat torture|torture]], for instance in [[Room 101]] in George Orwell's ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' or ''[[The Pit and the Pendulum]]'' by [[Edgar Allan Poe]].

Selfish helpfulness—those willing to help for a price—has also been attributed to fictional rats.<ref name="clute"/> Templeton, from E. B. White's ''[[Charlotte's Web]]'', repeatedly reminds the other characters that he is only involved because it means more food for him, and the cellar-rat of John Masefield's ''[[The Midnight Folk]]'' requires bribery to be of any assistance.

By contrast, the rats appearing in the [[Doctor Dolittle]] books tend to be highly positive and likeable characters, many of whom tell their remarkable life stories in the Mouse and Rat Club established by the animal-loving doctor.

Some fictional works use rats as the main characters. Notable examples include the society created by O'Brien's ''[[Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH]]'', and others include ''[[Doctor Rat]]'', and [[Rizzo the Rat]] from [[The Muppets]]. [[Pixar]]'s 2007 animated film ''[[Ratatouille (film)|Ratatouille]]'' is about a rat described by [[Roger Ebert]] as "earnest... lovable, determined, [and] gifted" who lives with a Parisian garbage-boy-turned-chef.<ref name="ebert">{{cite book |last=Ebert |first=Roger |title=Roger Ebert's Four-Star Reviews 1967–2007 |publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing |year=2008 |page=637 |isbn=978-0-7407-7179-8 |quote=Remy, the earnest little rat who is its hero, is such a lovable, determined, gifted rodent that I want to know what happens to him next, now that he has conquered the summit of French cuisine. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v43dJNPMJIkC&pg=PA637}}</ref>

''[[Mon oncle d'Amérique]]'' ("''My American Uncle''"), a 1980 [[cinema of France|French film]], illustrates [[Henri Laborit]]'s theories on [[evolutionary psychology]] and [[human behavior]]s by using short sequences in the storyline showing lab rat experiments.

In [[Harry Turtledove]]'s science fiction novel ''[[Homeward Bound (Turtledove novel)|Homeward Bound]]'', humans unintentionally introduce rats to the ecology at the home world of an alien race which previously invaded Earth and introduced some of its own fauna into its environment. [[A. Bertram Chandler]] pitted the space-bound protagonist of a long series of novels, Commodore Grimes, against giant, intelligent rats who took over several stellar systems and enslaved their human inhabitants. "[[The Stainless Steel Rat]]" is nickname of the (human) protagonist of a series of humorous [[science fiction]] [[novels]] written by [[Harry Harrison (writer)|Harry Harrison]].

Wererats, [[therianthropic]] creatures able to take the shape of a rat,<ref name="MC1">{{Cite book |author1=David "Zeb" Cook |author-link=David "Zeb" Cook |author2=Steve Winter |author2-link=Steve Winter |author3=Jon Pickens |author3-link=Jon Pickens |author4=Jay Battista |author4-link=Jay Battista |display-authors=3 | title = [[Monstrous Compendium|Monstrous Compendium Volume One]] | year = 1989 | publisher = [[TSR, Inc.]] | isbn = 0-8803-8738-6}}</ref> have appeared in the fantasy or horror genre since the 1970s. The term is a neologism coined in analogy to [[werewolf]].{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} The concept has since become common in [[role playing game]]s like ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''<ref name="MC1"/><ref>[[Gary Gygax|Gygax, Gary]] and Robert Kuntz. ''[[Greyhawk (supplement)|Supplement I: Greyhawk]]'' (TSR, 1975).<br>[[Gary Gygax|Gygax, Gary]]. ''[[Monster Manual]]'' (TSR, 1977).<br>[[Aaron Allston|Allston, Aaron]], [[Steven Schend|Steven E. Schend]], [[Jon Pickens]], and Dori Watry. ''[[Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia]]'' (TSR, 1991).<br>[[Ann Dupuis|Dupuis, Ann]]. ''[[Night Howlers]]'' ([[TSR, Inc.|TSR]], 1992).<br>{{cite journal| last = Swan| first = Rick| author-link = Rick Swan| title = Role-playing Reviews| journal = [[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]| issue = #192| page = 86| publisher = [[TSR, Inc.|TSR]]| location = [[Lake Geneva, Wisconsin]]|date=April 1993}}<br>[[Doug Stewart (game designer)|Stewart, Doug]], ed. ''[[Monstrous Manual]]'' (TSR, 1993).<br>{{cite journal| journal=[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]| issue=251| title=Ecology of the Wererat|date=September 1998| last=Johnson| first= Kristin| publisher=TSR}}<br>[[Skip Williams|Williams, Skip]], [[Jonathan Tweet]], and [[Monte Cook]]. ''[[Monster Manual]]''. [[Wizards of the Coast]], 2000.<br>Poisso, Dean. "Animal Ancestry." ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' #313 ([[Paizo Publishing]], 2003).</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author1=Bryan Armor |author2=Christine Gregory |author3=Ellen Kiley |author4=Steve Long |author5=Malcolm Sheppard |display-authors=3 | title =Dragons of the East | year =2000 | publisher =[[White Wolf Publishing, Inc.]] | isbn =1-56504-428-2 |page=92}}</ref> and fantasy fiction like the ''[[Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter|Anita Blake]]'' series.<ref>{{cite thesis |type=Tesis doctoral |last=Fusco |first=Virginia |date=2015 |title=Monstrous Figurations: Notes for a Feminist Reading |publisher=Universidad Carlos III de Madrid |pages=4, 122}}</ref>

====The Pied Piper====
{{main|Pied Piper of Hamelin}}
One of the oldest and most historic stories about rats is "[[The Pied Piper of Hamelin]]", in which a [[rat-catcher]] leads away an infestation with enchanted music.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The grim truth behind the Pied Piper |last=Kadushin |first=Raphael |website=BBC Travel |date=3 September 2020 |url= https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20200902-the-grim-truth-behind-the-pied-piper}}</ref> The piper is later refused payment, so he in turn leads away the town's children. This tale, traced to [[Germany]] around the late 13th century, has inspired adaptations in film, theatre, literature, and even opera. The subject of much research, some theories have intertwined the tale with events related to the [[Black Plague]], in which [[black rat]]s played an important role. Fictional works based on the tale that focus heavily on the rat aspect include Pratchett's ''[[The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents]]'', and Belgian graphic novel ''{{ill|Le Bal du Rat Mort|fr}}'' (''The Ball of the Dead Rat''). Furthermore, a linguistic phenomenon when a wh-expression drags with it an entire encompassing phrase to the front of the clause has been named [[pied-piping]] after "Pied Piper of Hamlin" (see also [[pied-piping with inversion]]).