In H.P Lovecraft's The Rats in the Walls, the main character is accused of having the same trait that his family has. It is that they eat flesh of the human body. As we get in to the story, we know that Delapore, the narrator, is a calm and well-disciplined man. We can see these characteristics when we see the reaction to the death of his son. However, this calmness turned to rage when the story progressed and Delapore with his team went underground to explore what is under the mansion. This led us to believe compilation of traumas of the narrator's experiences triggered his old ancestor's traits. This essay is going to elaborate on how trait can be triggered through emotion by trauma using concepts suggested by two specialists in Archeology Enrico Crema and Mark W. Lake. In addition, it will show the opposing idea. The essay will use a specialist in American culture traits William F. Tilden. These two ideas are to show that whether Delapore's outrage was something that switched on when he reached the lowest point of his life, or was it something that he had the whole time.

If we saw this trait as a buried one, we must look to how cultural transmission plays a role in the character's attitude. Though we do not know much about the narrator, we can study from what is given about his cultural trait and therefore make an assumption to why Delapore did this action. According to "The Cultural Evolution of Adaptive-Trait Diversity When Resources Are Uncertain and Finite" by Lake and Crema, "the lower rate of cultural transmission produces faster cultural evolution in the sense that it leads to the more rapid adoption of traits offering a higher payoff". Delapore's family moving around has a vast impact to his traits according to this article. Because Delapore's family settled in different places, the rate to cultural evolution was fast and led to adapt traits of the local environment that had the higher payoff. The accumulation was a key factor to lead cultural transmission of the family disappears and gains another one. Although these traits are lost through time, the article focuses on "niches" that sometimes exploit at some situations, "What we see here is the effect of excessive reliance on cultural transmission: thus trait is initially the most common, but the payoff declines as this "niche" fills up, eventually leading more agents to revert back to trait". The relation of trait and niche is inversely proportional. One goes up, the goes down. These niches can be seen as the facts that keep on coming to Delapore and him receiving it in a continuous astonishing manner. If we take this concept and apply it to Delapore in the scene when he was underground, we can see that the concept implies as story progress. As they dug deeper to Delapore's family, he went deeper to his earlier instinct and trait. The same concept of payoff as the whole dilemma of changing and adapting to the higher payoff declines and the niche, in here this monstrous trait, fills up and eventually brings back what was in him long time ago. We can see the time Delapore hit rock bottom of his cultural transmission was when he attacked his friend and let the "niche" trait get the better of him. 

This case study can make us look to the story in a different angle. We can see that Delapore words might not be used in its literal context. If we assume that Delapore was insane, what stopped him before to do something terrible before. For example, we take his word that his son was disfigured because of the war "but was almost immediately distracted from my plans of restoration by the return of my son as a maimed invalid" . If Delapore was insane from the beginning, it might be him who disfigured his son. As absurd is this statement, we are not certain of any of Delapore's actions. In other words, if he did it to Captain Norris, he might have done it. This case study also helps us to look for the ending "Who says I am a de la Poer? He lived, but my boy died! ... Shall a Norrys holds the lands of a de la Poer? ... It's voodoo, I tell you ... that spotted snake ... Curse you, Thorton, I'll teach you to faint at what my family do!". These accusations can be dismissed with a simple idea. We can observe that in this situation Delapore has a mixture of feeling. His remedy of cultural diversity broke and the niche of the trait got the better of him. This triggered the trait that has been hiding in his characteristics the whole time. It is not that he is an insane person. However, the fact that he experienced trauma and could not deal with it led him to make a move that is inhumane.

The other face of the argument is whether Delapore's trait was just a response to what he have learned and seen in that place. In this analysis, William F. Tilden's "American Cultural Traits" will help us recognize the validity of the argument. The character possess with characteristics that any human can have. It derived from his ancestor that led him to use it as a first response to the incident. Tilden explains how the concept of orderliness/cleanliness causes the person to react in an absurd behavior "The trait of Orderliness/ Cleanliness, in the first instance, reflects the decision to comply and conform to the demands made by the environment.". The argument made by Tilden's essay can be related to Delapore's situation. As Delapore went deeper into darkness, his environment got the better of him. The atmoshphere created by the environment leads to react with what it feels. In other words, Delapore's actions were a response to the situation and the atmosphere of the environment. We can see this notion at the end of the story "found me crouching in the blackness over the plump, half-eaten body of Capt. Norrys, with my own cat leaping and tearing at my throat.". If we read closely, we can observe that Delapore was not aware of his actions. Therefore, what he had done was an immediate response to a situation of anxiety. As Tilden point out, the decision was based on the environment that Delapore was in which was a rat hole. Delapore overthinks on any situation. We can see that by the constant judging to other people, such as Captain Norrys by calling him a plump, and the repetition of overthinking led him to think of how Norrys will inherit the de la Poer legacy Exham Priory. The idea of giving up the priory steered to resistance and rebellion. The traits that Tilden explains by saying that 

"Rebellion and resistance to the cultural imperative is a second response, from which is derived the character-trait of Obstinacy. Parsimony represents a compromise-formation between the two conflicting demands, since retention allows a child to retain individual control over its own bodily contents while, at the same time, by not producing them, allows the child to express a measure of "active compliance" with the environment's need for order and cleanliness.".

Tilden's essay shows how natural behavior may lead a person to take off their human behavior and go with wild action. The cultural imparitive suggested was a response to show how, even a child, will response in an absurd, unnatural behavior. It is something that is in the person's nature but we cover it up. However, when the situation that needs that violent and wild behavior, it is unleashed without we realized what we have done. In case of Delapore, we can observe Delapore's intention of giving up the priory led to a second response that is rebellion. By resisting the notion, it allowed him to have control for once to the courses that was taken in his life. Unfortunately, his responses were inhumane and were inspired by the same devil that he resisted, his family.  

Both arguments are on the opposite, yet close, sides. There is a thin line between them, which looks at both of them as true and false at the same time. Delapore had traits of his family that were never mentioned to him. The change that triggered him to attack Norrys was both an immediate response and a buried trait. He knew about his family in a short period "God! Those carrion black pits of sawed, picked bones and opened skulls! Those nightmare chasms choked with the pithecanthropoid, Celtic, Roman, and English bones of countless unhallowed centuries!" . The environment of the priory cleared the path of obtaining a higher payoff to the niche of his traits. "Horror piled on horror as we began to interpret the architectural remains". As the wen deeper to the cave, Delapore changes within. His trait turns to what they were of his pure family traits of "de la Poer" and when the moment he realize what is to be a de la Poer. He overthinks and tries to take control by doing the first thing as a response, which is to eat the plump Captain Norrys. 

We can see that both arguments can be seen in one eye. They are might be on opposing sides but, in my opinion, I think they are the same. He had this trait in him by his ancestors. In addition, it was awaken once he set his foot in that mansion. Delapore was a timed bomb. He was deactivated when he isolated himself of his ancestors. However, when he started to get back with his family's history, that bomb was activated and slowly went to the final countdown. And by the ended, it blasted and he ate his friend Captain Norrys.  

LAKE, MARK W., and ENRICO R. CREMA. "The Cultural Evolution Of Adaptive-Trait Diversity When Resources Are Uncertain And Finite." Advances In Complex Systems 15.1/2 (2012): 1150013-1-1150013-19. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Nov. 2014.
