Citizens of the society we live in can be very judgmental to the things they do not understand. People have different points of view and see things differently, and some of those people judge the other people who are different from them. In "The Rats in the Walls," Delapore, a man with no official first name, hears and sees rats that no on else can hear. These rats make him go crazy and become a bloodthirsty cannibal. Lovecraft never officially says that Delapore is a cannibal and eats anyone but from the text it is inferred that he does through the events in the underground grotto. The constant suspicion the villagers of Anchester have of the Delapores and the Exham Priory is proven to be right by Lovecraft's illustration of this particular Delapore.  Delapore moves into his famous families house called the Exham Priory, where strange stuff is known to have happened. A lot of people have gone missing, many have died and all the blame is put on the Delapore family living in the Exham Priory. Delapore moves into this house because he buys it and wishes to restore it back to its medieval castle look. Even with all the mystery and suspicion of the house Delapore decides to move in once his son is taken in the war. He has no idea what to expect of the house but he soon find outs the mystery that he never wish he knew.  By looking at how H.P. Lovecraft portrays the Delapore family and all the items and events in the grotto, we can see that the Delapores have hereditary cannibalism cause the sound of the scurrying rats. This is important because no one else can hear the rats, proving that society judges what they can't hear or see.

Throughout the entirety of this story Delapore talks about how he can hear the scurrying of the rats through the walls before he goes to sleep. But when he invites a friend of his Captain Norrys he doesn't hear a thing, but he notices the nine cats that Delapore has can hear them too. Once they go beneath the Exham Priory and see the "subterraneous world of limitless mystery"(Lovecraft 52) is when Lovecraft illustrates to us that the Delapores are cannibals. Delapore realizes something is wrong when he begins hearing the rats and then having dreams of "daemon swineherds"(Lovecraft 47) and a "flock of fungous, flabby beasts" (Lovecraft 47) being eaten by rats. Once Delapore, Norrys and the team of researchers they brought along go into the grotto they see countless gnawed skulls and bones of dead people lying around the floor. These cannibalistic thoughts and actions that Delapore get are when he first sees the rats and them hearing them run by him. All of the other men are down there with Delapore but they don't get affected the same way he does. Delapore sees and hears these rats giving him a different perception on who he actually is. They end up locking him up which they should but they have no idea how or why he started eating another man. If they understood why Delapore had the urge to do this then maybe he would get a lesser punishment. This is true in real life not just fictional stories, men get locked up for crimes they commit which they deserve but no one really knows their background. A man who has to steal food and essential items to provide for his family is a criminal but he is also doing what he has to survive at all costs.  Society judges people like this all the time because they look on the surface no one ever finds out the real story behind a person and their motives judges men like this. 

Looking into the second to last paragraph Lovecraft clearly points out that the Delapore's must be cannibals. Once Delapore heard "that impious, insidious scurrying" (Lovecraft 54) he starts thinking dark thoughts that he hasn't been shown to think before. He asks, "why shouldn't rats eat a de la Poer as a de la Poer eats forbidden things?"(Lovecraft 54). He is stating that he knows his ancestors were cannibals, and if they can eat humans with the rats why can't the rats eat them? Which is a good question but it is answered by the fact that the rats trigger the Delapore's thirst for human meat. Without the sound of the scurrying rats Delapore would never have been found over the half-eaten body of Norrys. After going deeper and deeper into madness Delapore starts telling himself his isn't the daemon swineherd that he saw in his dream, and that Norrys isn't the "flabby, fungous thing," (Lovecraft 54) even though he does think that because the rats are triggering his inner darkness to come out. He keeps going on to say how his son died in the war and why didn't Norrys. So now Lovecraft is illustrating why Delapore ends up eating Norrys, because the sound and the feel of the "viscous, gelatinous, ravenous rats" (Lovecraft 54) bumping in to him make him blame Norrys for the death of his son. Then he for some reason thinks that Norrys would want to hold the lands of a Delapore, which makes no sense because there is no intention in the story of Norrys wanting to own the Exham Priory. It is just another example of the way the rats corrupt the minds of the Delapores. This information illustrates how Delapore's perception and thoughts are skewed by a sound. Maybe if the other men heard the rats they would go crazy and eat other human beings too. Only Delapore can hear them and it's they are voices in his head telling him what to do. People who are mentally not healthy sometimes say they hear actual voices telling them to kill people are do messed up things. Essentially that is what these rats are doing to Delapore and his ancestors before him. Lovecraft wants u to think that Delapore is a psycho but really he is just a normal man who is affected by the things he hears and sees.

H.P. Lovecraft portrays the Delapore family as having hereditary cannibalism caused the sound of the scurrying rats. This is important because no one else can hear the rats, proving that society judges what they can't hear or see. People will have different perceptions and ways of viewing things in life and a lot of the times people judge who ever isn't the same. Delapore was not the same as his friends and other people so he was judged along with this long list of standing ancestors. Lovecraft approaches a very important topic in society today, it is one that should be changed and viewed differently. Not everyone will be the same and not everyone knows the cause of someone's wrong doing so we have to learn to accept people for who they are and all their faults that come with them.

