
This story was not so simple to understand after the initial reading; it took a few additional readings to gain the proper perspective needed to comprehend the many layers going on in this story. The important aspect that leaps out here is how freely Lovecraft uses the phrase “Nigger-Man”. While comparing the time frame of writing for this story in 1924, to today even though the usage of the word may not have been so objectionable then as it is today. With regards to society today, the use of this rhetorical phraseology is not used, nor is it excepted as normal rhetoric.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s, “The Rats in the walls” is the one story that most compelled me to write about it, and for its ability to take me step outside of my comfort zone. Generally what H.P. Lovecraft has done here is create a compelling philosophical world that speaks to us, the readers on a multilayered level, yet without giving a full account of its contents. Lovecraft also does a fantastic job of keeping the reader in a constant state of suspense by only releasing little bits of needed information at a time. Lovecraft looks to have taken many cues from several influential readings of his past and adjoined them to create this rich, multi-layered interesting story. Stories like S. Baring-Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (1866) for the many uses of rats devouring everything in their path, “Then there came a man to him from his farm,

 with a countenance pale with fear, to tell him that the rats had devoured all the corn in his granaries.” (Gould, 184), and Fiona Macleod's "The Sin-Eater" bear similarities of specific Gaelic passages translated to this, “God against thee and in thy face… and may a death of woe be yours… Evil and sorrow to thee and thine!” (Macleod, 46). Other inspiration on the count of the cavern under the priory may have come from Baring-Gould's account of a legendary Irish holy site by the name of St. Patrick's Purgatory. The story of the priory's rats pummeling across the open meadows may have been inspired by the book's retelling of the legend of Bishop Hatto, who was eaten by rats after setting fire to all the starving peasants during famine in this passage from the story, “The rats surged against him like waves breaking on a cliff, and very soon the Bishop was overwhelmed in the horrid flood. Little was left to tell of the tragedy when his servants plucked up courage to enter the building some days later.” (Gask). There is also the part in another story where Carl Jung’s “house” dream told to Sigmund Freud about the historically stratified ancestral family home of a Romanesque cellar, and the lifting of the hidden slab that gave way to stone steps that descended down to a prehistoric cave full of bones (Wikipedia). There is even a connection to Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”, where a gentleman by the name of Roderick usher says that his hearing is so abnormally sensitive that he "can hear the rats in the walls” (Poe). This passage from “The Rats in the Walls” correlates to Poe’s story, “But even so, the spectral horror was no less; for if these were living vermin why did not Norrys hear their disgusting commotion? Why did he urge me to watch Nigger-Man and listen to the cats outside, and why did he guess wildly and vaguely at what could have aroused them?” (Lovecraft 249).

The figurative device that I think stood out most to me and was repeated several times in this story, and happens to be the name of De La Pore’s (narrator) oldest of the nine cats at seven years old is “Nigger-Man”:

                    My household consisted of seven servants and nine cats, of which latter species I am particularly fond. My eldest cat, "Nigger-Man," was seven years old and had come with me from my home in Bolton, Massachusetts; the others I had accumulated whilst living with Capt. Norrys' family during the restoration of the priory. (245)

What contributes to the meaning of the piece as a whole is the fact that H.P. Lovecraft did indeed struggle with racism in that he held certain “classes” of people to many different levels of regard. Lovecraft makes it a point to openly admit his struggles and also speaks of a time later in life where he for lack of better words mellows out and starts accepting people for who they are and less by the color of their skin or where they were born or come from. (Wikipedia) The tone seen serving a function can be visualized thru the literary device “Nigger-Man”. The uninhibited use of the phrase is loosely used throughout the entire story. This creates a heightened level of awareness towards the phrase and causes the reader to key in on the specific word within the phrase. The use of this key word and the repetition of it in this story exacerbates the overall theme of the story and makes it less appealing.

Lovecraft’s racism was unique in that he did not think all white people were equal. The Anglo-Saxon along with the English, and English descendants in Lovecraft’s mind were the elite human race, and everyone else was thought of negatively, i.e. African-Americans, German immigrants, and Irish Catholic. (Wikipedia) In reality H.P. Lovecraft also had a cat named Nigger-Man, this alone insinuated that Lovecraft struggled with racism in his life, and later on as he grew older he began to except a more universal classism regarding human beings. Another weird aspect of his racism is that he did actually hold in high regards Hispanic and Jewish people. Yet another hint as to the level of Lovecraft’s surreal racism can be seen in a poem he wrote named “On the Creation of Niggers” written in 1912.

The particular theme of the name Nigger-Man is more than likely a metaphor both in the story and in real life. Given Lovecraft’s history of racism, he so openly uses the context of” Nigger” very often in this story and of other racial insinuations in his other well-known literary writings. I think he uses it as a contextual reminder to the reader that the very word itself has profound meaning and is repeatedly and loudly displayed throughout “The Rats in the Walls”. The last reference of the phrase was used in an odd fashion, “Now they have blown up Exham Priory, taken my Nigger-Man away from me, and shut me into this barred room at Hanwell with fearful whispers about my heredity and experiences” (255).

Over the course of time reading through the story it gets clearer as to what is being said and the direction the story is going. In the beginning the story leaves the reader asking many questions that do not come to light until the end of the story. For example, of how, when Captain Norry and De La Poer were in the Cellar under the house and Capt. Norry did not hear the sounds of rats in the walls as Da La Poer did. Then it turns out that this noise was part of something that was going on inside Da La Poer. Another thing that changes over time is the readers own belief in what he/she thinks is going on as Lovecraft peels back the layers of the onion.  Lovecraft does this to create depth and interest to create complex atmosphere that stimulates the reader on many levels.

In conclusion my argument for Lovecraft’s racism will be defined by his contextual connotations of the phrase “Nigger-Man”, which does not depend upon similarities or contradictions with other passages in this story to gain meaning. However, the fact that this phrase is used different each time simply means Lovecraft is very aware of his words and is not deterred in any way by critics and readers alike in his repeated use of the connotation. The differences in this phrase tell us that the impact upon Lovecraft’s thematic concerns carry very little weight. Lovecraft gained posthumous fame from his horror fictions and was a well-respected writer in his time. The correspondence of the referents that is drawn from the phrase “Nigger-Man” is Lovecraft’s personal feelings towards African-Americans. He thinks Anglo-Saxons are a superior race to all others and his connotations in this story, and many others he has written speak of more connotations of referents. The distinct context for which this figurative device is shown allows the author to think, feel, and write freely without revocation of contextual connotations.
