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Beginning in the city of Esmeralda, Marco Polo begins to describe a struggle between rats and swallows. As they reappear in later cities, the rats become symbolic of corruption, nastiness, and in general, the disgusting underbelly that Calvino suggests is inherent to all cities and, indeed, to the modern world. In the rats’ final appearance in Theodora, Calvino seems to suggest that in the end, corruption will reign supreme—and even if people do manage to get rid of it, something will inevitably rise up to replace it, just as, following the rats’ extermination in Theodora, other previously exterminated mythical creatures reinvigorate themselves and plan to retake the city.
Rats Quotes in Invisible Cities
The Invisible Cities quotes below all refer to the symbol of Rats. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 9 Quotes
Was the oracle mistaken? Not necessarily. I interpret it in this way: Marozia consists of two cities, the rat’s and the swallow’s; both change with time, but their relationship does not change; the second is the one about to free itself from the first.
Related Characters:
Marco Polo (speaker), Kublai Khan
Related Symbols:
Rats, Birds (Swallows)
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
155
Explanation and Analysis:
After recounting an oracle that said that Marozia is composed of a city of the rats and one of the swallows, Marco notes that the version of the city that seemed like that of the swallows began to take on rat-like tendencies. Because of this, he insists that it’s not appropriate to simply delineate the city by dividing it into these two different cities. Instead, it’s more appropriate to view the city as being involved in an endless cycle in which half of the city is always attempting to free itself from the other half. In this way, the half represented by the swallows can always represent hope for the better, while the rats can always represent corruption and greed—something that Calvino implies are present in all humans in varying ratios.
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Rats Symbol Timeline in Invisible Cities
The timeline below shows where the symbol Rats appears in Invisible Cities. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 6
...restrictions. Cats, thieves, and illicit lovers in Esmeralda move along gutters and balconies, while below, rats run with smugglers through manholes and ditches. A map of Esmeralda should include all of...
(full context)
Chapter 7
...version as the ideal model. Decadence gives way to plagues and slowly, survivors emerge like rats to loot but, like birds, want to nest. People take things to use them differently,...
(full context)
Chapter 9
...3. Long ago, someone said that there are two cities in Marozia: one of the rat and one of the swallow. Today, vicious, fighting rats swarm Marozia. A new century is...
(full context)
...off condors, serpents, spiders, flies, and termites. Eventually, it became an exclusively human city. The rats were the last to hold on. They were hard to get rid of, as each...
(full context)
