Essay on Analysis Of The Poem ' The Rat Trap '

In life, people face hardships and difficult times to shape and build them, and this is shown in “The Rat Trap.” The theme of the story is revealed through the characters, symbols, and the situations that the main character faces. The title of this short story is quite fitting because it is a symbol of the theme of the story. All of the experiences that the main character faces represent a bigger idea about life, and the character realizes this at the end of the story. The physical rattrap that is presented in the story actually symbolizes that life itself is a rattrap. Life often puts obstacles or “bait” in the paths of humans, and this can come in many different forms. At the beginning of the story, the peddler blames all of his problems on life because he believes that life is a giant rattrap, and that it “had never existed for any other purpose but to set baits for people.” (Lagerlof 463). In other words, life offers material possessions, happiness, and luxuries as bait to get oneself caught into a trap that is very difficult to get out of, and the main character eventually experiences this for himself when life lures him into its trap through the form of riches and appearance. However, at the end of the story the peddler understands that the challenging traps that life gives people help them grow to become better people in the long run. The theme of “The Rat Trap” is that the troubles and hardships that life gives people is all part of the journey of maturing. The…