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In Shutter Island, rats represent the inhumane treatment patients at Ashecliffe Hospital receive. In laboratory studies, rats are common test subjects; scientists utilize rats because they think their lives have less value than human lives. In this novel, the doctors at Ashecliffe Hospital treat their patients like rats. The doctors experiment on them for the supposed betterment of society and often treat them like they are subhuman. Rats first appear in the novel when Dr. Sheehan tells a story about how he would watch rats try to swim from Shutter Island to the nearest island. Every time, they would fail and die. In essence, Andrew is Dr. Sheehan’s rat. Dr. Sheehan performs various experiments on Andrew and tries to get him to see reality. However, ultimately, his experiments fail, and he strips Andrew of his humanity via a transorbital lobotomy. Later in the novel, when Andrew is on the beach, he notices that the entire island is covered with rats. His realization signifies to the reader that he is not the only rat; everyone on the island is one as well. The implication, which Lehane sometimes shows directly, is that the medical staff is treating everyone on the island similar to how they treat Andrew. He is only one of many experiments—all of which, according to Dr. Sheehan’s analogy, are almost certainly doomed to fail.
Rats Quotes in Shutter Island
The Shutter Island 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:
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Prologue Quotes
In the years following those four strange days of late summer 1954, I took to studying the rats from a cut in the hill overlooking the northern shore. I was fascinated to discover that some of the rats would try to swim for Paddock Island, little more than a rock in a cupful of sand that remained submerged twenty-two hours out of every day. When it appeared for that hour or two as the current reached its lowest ebb, sometimes they’d swim for it, these rats, never more than a dozen or so and always driven back by the riptide.
I say always, but no. I saw one make it. Once. The night of the harvest moon in October ’56. I saw its black moccasin of a body dart across the sand.
Or so I think. Emily, whom I met on the island, will say, “Lester, you couldn’t have. It was too far away.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
Here, Dr. Sheehan describes the sparseness of Shutter Island. His description of the island emphasizes its isolation from the outside world. Indeed, isolation is a key theme in the novel, as characters suffer from both literal and metaphorical isolation—literal in the sense that they are away from other people and metaphorical in the sense that they have mentally blocked themselves off from reality. The geography of Shutter Island ensures that its patients will never live normal lives, which adds to their internal sense of isolation. Additionally, this passage describes Dr. Sheehan’s experience with the island’s rats. Here, Dr. Sheehan creates Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Veli
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Rats Symbol Timeline in Shutter Island
The timeline below shows where the symbol Rats appears in Shutter Island. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Prologue
...unimpressive and seemingly without purpose. Indeed, the island is not particularly alluring. Sheehan notes that rats were the most common animal to live there, and he spent much of his time...
(full context)
Chapter 17
...walking down the beach to look for his lost partner. As he walks, he sees rats everywhere. At first, they do not bother him too much, but he starts to get...
(full context)
