H.P. Lovecraft, the author of The Rats in the Walls, is a modern day legacy primarily associated with the ever popular horror-fantasy stories of Cthulhu Mythos and the Necronomicon (Hayden, McNeil.) Lovecraft's roots lay in Rhode Island, where is spent most of his life from 1890 until his death in 1937. He did move around some, having lived in New York for several years and have had taken trips across the United States and Canada, as opposed from popular opinion of him being a complete hermit.  His writing background started at the very early age of six. His grandfather influenced an early interest in horror-fiction, or as he would say, 'weird-fiction.' Lovecraft was not a successful or well recognized author during his lifetime, and achieved most of his fame posthumously (Joshi.)

Lovecraft's The Rats in the Walls tells the firsthand account of the aristocratic man named de la Poer (formally known as Delapore) that purchases an eerie estate called Exham Priory that has been in his lineage for centuries. It is told early in the story that his ancestors and relatives since the year 1000 have committed dreadful crimes. These horrible crimes are eventually the cause for his family's immigration to the United States. de la Poer unfortunately comes to realize that the reason for his accused ancestral atrocities is hidden deep within the catacombs of the manor he had bought after a series of repeated night terrors and ghastly noises that had haunted him and his many pet cats. 

Lovecraft's cultural influence behind his work is significantly less attractive in the modern eye. In The Rats in the Walls, racism is a theme that is not necessarily socially acceptable within any medium in today's publication industry. 

American society was changing very steadily during Lovecraft's lifetime, becoming more progressive and modern through industrialization into the early twentieth century. A very negative aspect about Lovecraft that is evident in his work is his racism. Racism in The Rats in the Walls is fairly easily picked out  --  de la Poer's black cat's name is Nigger Man; more subtly, he shockingly compared his ancestors' atrocities with his cousin's decision to mingle with African Americans.

The name of the cat is a truly unfortunate event. In the time period that Lovecraft was writing, derogatory terms were still used but were being funneled out of popular media fairly quickly. Especially with the advent of motion pictures and popular music records in the early 1900's, restrictions and censorship regulations were being placed on all forms of publication in the name of decency.  Today, such language is just not in good taste for the 'family-oriented' atmosphere of accessible media (such as television and radio.) A reason why the story was initially rejected from the first magazine Lovecraft offered it to be in is because he had refused to have the cat renamed to something less aggressive. The reasoning behind why he named the cat Nigger Man in the first place is because he had apparently owned a cat by the same name, so one could see where he is coming from in an accidentally humorous and sympathetic sort of way; as if Lovecraft was merely paying homage to his cat through his work. 

Lovecraft's comparison between his estranged cousin that chose to be among African American's and become a voodoo priest and the known cultist, cannibalistic, and homicidal tendencies of his past ancestors is extremely racist. To honestly think that the serial murder of townspeople and an eventual family massacre is equally as tragic as one's desire to be with people of color is beyond me. We should all be thankful that it is taught at an early age in our society that it is a small world after all, as opposed to be so caught up on whether or not one wishes to mingle with people of a different race.

The naming of the cat is fairly tame compared to several of Lovecraft's other works, most notably, On the Creation of Niggers. In the poem, he basically calls all non-white people evil, semi-human beasts in two lines (Lovecraft.) It should not be brushed aside that most people of his day and age in the early twentieth century were still mostly incredibly racist. African Americans were segregated and treated like second class citizens all across the United States until the 1960's. So for his time period, it wasn't necessarily out of place in America to write poems such as that, or have views as aggressive as he did. More popular writers from the twentieth century such as Rudyard Kipling and Dr. Seuss also have racially charged works, such as Kipling's The White Man's Burden and Seuss' anti-Japanese propaganda cartoons (Tofugu. The time period was socially acceptant of these kinds of views. It wasn't as alarming an issue as it is in today's culture. 

The literature movement that Lovecraft was a part of is now known as the Gothic Revival movement in literature through the 19th and 20th centuries. In The Rats in the Walls, Lovecraft's influence for writing the story was the cracking of wall paper late at night. As a child and into adulthood, Lovecraft has been known to have had chronic night terrors. His horrible dreams pose a strong connection between him and his character, de la Poer; whose dreams keep him up at night and drive him to lengths to find out what could possibly be driving him and his trusty feline friend mad. It wouldn't be unfair to state that Lovecraft very well could have had developed his story through a real life fear or anxiousness. 
