The Rats in the Walls by H.P. Lovecraft is an interesting tale about an aristocratic fellow named De la pore from the state of Massachusetts that purchases his ancestral land in England called Exham Priory. He purchases the land because of the colorful description his son's friend Norrys gave in letters to him and his family. De la pore jumped on the place and restored the entire building and fields around it, eventually uncovering an ancient, unprecedented evil.

The piece of the story that I am analyzing is the last paragraph (paragraph twenty-six) on page thirty-seven in The Carolina Reader, where De la pore is awaken by noises and decides to leave his chamber to check where the eerie noises are coming from. Lovecraft makes full use of foreshadowing in this paragraph through his repetitive and frank word choice. For example,  words like down, descent, below, and direction. In the first sentence, I interpret "Nigger-Man following at my heels" as a subliminal hint  --  the word heel. Heels are arguably the lowest part of the human body and the main character is about to adventure down into the depths of his castle. The second sentence in the paragraph, Lovecraft describes De la pore's cat as "vanished down the ancient flight" and how De la pore "descended" the stairs as well. Now the reason why I believe why the author means more than just what the characters are actually doing is because of the 'super' subcellar found below the thought to be believed subcellar described later in the story. This is point in the story when suspense is being continuously built and the way Lovecraft is pushing us in this downward direction is stacking on anticipation of these rodent noises down that flight of steps; as well as something deeper. "These creatures... were engaged in one stupendous migration from inconceivable heights to some depth conceivably, or inconceivably, below." Now if that quote is not the hammer on the nail as to why this entire paragraph is one giant, anticipation filled, metaphorical conglomerate, than I do not know what is. Lovecraft is practically giving us the ending of the story in this one sentence, how there is a mystery as to how deep the noises can get, because they can and do with the discovery of the super subcellar. 

As well as foreshadowing the "twilit grotto", Lovecraft subtly gives us what is inside the grotto. De la pore is described as hearing "sounds of a nature that could not be mistaken," putting the rodent noises in our head. He reestablishes his voice from a passive voice earlier in the work, opting for a more active, so I should say, alive, style. De la pore no longer is brushing off the previously minute details (such as his restless cats), using general and vague terms, but instead is humanizing his experiences and treating them with more care, using powerful actions verbs like "scampering" and "stampeding." De la pore hears his "oak-paneled walls alive with rats... milling." The first thing that strokes me is that he labeled the wall as oak. The author is giving us a sense of life in this house. Wood comes from trees and trees are, at one point, living beings. He also mentions the rats of course, but hears them "milling." Milling's denotation  --  in reference to people or animals  --  is movement in a confused mass. The grotto of human bones could very well be considered to be a confused mass; the creatures in the pit were found to be cannibalistic, and I see a definite connection between the milling of the rats and the milling of what had happened to these peoples in the past. More reason as to why Lovecraft is wanting us to know something living is down in the "inconceivable depth" is De la pore's cat behaving with a  "fury of a baffled hunter" as he flees down the staircase. Hunting is the act of killing and deceiving a living being, and being baffled means to be in a state of shock and confusion. It would be fair to say that the author fully willed using the word "baffled" to describe the cat as opposed to, let us say ferocious, vicious, or even timid. In the story, De la pore has the genius idea to invite a collection of seven men to the cellar to find out what could possibly be pitted below the cellar. This is hunting. Every single one of the men that De la pore invited to excavate his cellar was indeed baffled with the discovery of the super subcellar. The gentlemen "had their breaths snatched" from them; the psychic investigator fainted in another's arms. Norrys screamed inarticulately, and a fourth used the lord's name in vain: "My God!"  They're all in complete and utter bafflement! A connection is too blatant. 

The rats in the story, specifically the paragraph being read, can be viewed as a symbol of curiosity. There is a saying that applies purrfect to the selection: curiosity killed the cat. In this metaphor, curiosity is the noises of vermin plaguing his thoughts and De la pore himself is the cat. It is as if the noises of rodents sparked De la pore's curiosity and his very finicky felines only excited him even further to leave his chamber and eventually commit a cannibalistic homicide. In Chinese mythology, the rat is the first animal on the Chinese Zodiac. The weaknesses of the rat include selfishness and greed. It is plausible to compare De la pore in this sense, as he went out of his way to purchase a manor across the Atlantic Ocean and completely restore it even though the local 'peasants' ostracized him and detested his actions. The only way he got the local people to quit hating him is by confessing ignorance. This extravagance displayed by De la pore is one of few negative qualities the rat has in the Chinese Zodiac.  

It should go without saying the explicit (and subtle) references toward the end of the story within the selected paragraph (paragraph twenty-six) are purposeful moments of foreshadowing the conclusion of the story. The repetitive and synonymous diction used by Lovecraft as well as his metaphorical connections to living organisms are brilliant devices used to foreshadow his story.
