Fourth Grade Rats

Chapters 10-12 comprise the conflict and personal growth stages for Suds. However, the conflict in this section occurs in an inverted way, for instead of Suds being at odds with his social environment at school, Suds is now at odds with his own moral character and with his family as he torments his siblings and frustrates his parents. While being a rat wins him a dubious form of acceptance from his peers and his crush, Suds’s new behavior contradicts his former characterization, signifying the crisis point that he currently occupies. Resolving his internal crisis facilitates the climax of the novel and catalyzes his ultimate character growth into an individual who is finally beginning to understand The True Meaning of Maturity.

Thus, Suds finally learns that becoming a fourth grade rat is a thorny and problematic way of Navigating the Path to Preadolescence. At first, he thinks he’s having a great time being a rat, for he states, “Even I didn’t know [what had gotten into me]. All I knew, whatever it was, it felt good” (94). However, when circumstances force him into a dire situation in Chapter 12, he realizes that being a rat isn’t his real personality. Trapped in a tree by his own deeply buried fears, Suds experiences a moment of clarity that catalyzes his personal growth, functioning as the climax to the plot. While stuck, he thinks “about rats and real men and Number One and angels and fame and first and last and love and nature’s way. And for the first time since [he] started fourth grade, [he] knew exactly who [he] was– a scared kid up a tree” (119). With this realization, shedding his rat persona and recognizing his true self facilitates the resolution to Suds’s internal identity crisis. This moment develops Suds’s more mature perspective on what it means to grow up.

In addition to developing Suds’s long battle with peer pressure, Spinelli sprinkles the narrative with hints that Suds’s peers are undergoing similar issues. For example, while Suds basks in the attention he receives from Judy Billings, the scene in the schoolyard in Chapter 10 implies that Judy is also enamored of the possibility of gaining her classmates’ attention and approval. As Suds observes that “Judy was mobbed too, mostly by girls” and weakly concludes, “I guess we were both famous” (105), his statement highlights the shallowness of Judy’s sudden attention and foreshadows her eventual abandonment of Suds when he no longer lives up to her expectations. She has no affection for Suds’s true self; she only cares about the status that associating with him provides her. Her selfish actions in Chapter 12 reinforce the inauthenticity of her friendship, evoking the novel’s ultimate conclusion that changing one’s identity for social acceptance reaps empty rewards. 

Similarly, Joey undergoes his own transition from a “rat” back into a boy when his own behavior backfires on him at home. Thus, Joey’s strangely distant behavior in Chapter 11 foreshadows the ultimate breakdown of the rat persona for both boys. Joey’s pushy, rebellious behavior has foiled Suds’s hesitant, gentle behavior for most of the novel; now, ironically, their roles have reversed. While Suds has gone full rat, Joey reverts to his normal self, eschewing meat-based sandwiches and aggressive wardrobe choices. This new trend foreshadows the consequences that Suds himself will face when he reaps The Costs of Succumbing to Peer Pressure. Up until this point, Joey has been trying to make sense of his world by creating a false identity that his social environment reinforced; without this framework to justify his bad behavior, he sheds his aggressive tendencies and reverts back to being a quiet, average student. Joey’s changed demeanor also foreshadows his role in the resolution of the peer pressure theme when he apologizes for his behavior and reveals that his mother has intervened to correct his behavior. While Suds ultimately accepts responsibility for his own actions, Joey’s apology acknowledges the fact that peer relationships often incite problematic behavioral changes during important stages of transition.