43 pages • 1 hour read
Jerry SpinelliFourth Grade Rats
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1992A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Fourth Grade Rats
The motif to which the novel owes its name is a major structuring motif for the narrative. The fourth grade rats rhyme opens the novel: “First grade babies! Second grade cats! Third grade angels! Fourth grade…RAAAAATS!” (1). In the context of the story, the rhyme is meant to dictate the students’ social hierarchy, which is predictably based on age. Characters like Joey take the rhyme very seriously and use it as a guide to behavior. The motif of the rat is a device that Jerry Spinelli uses to represent the transition from childhood to preadolescence, thereby forcing the main characters to question the essence of their shifting identity in this new context. Suds’s desire to become a rat drives many of his decisions in the novel, and Spinelli therefore uses the motif of fourth grade rats to portray the complex challenges of growing up.
The fourth grade rats rhyme represents the social pressure to conform to a troublemaking identity. Becoming a rat is the mechanism through which Suds confronts important ideas about growing up, and he undergoes many unforeseen challenges as Joey encourages him to leave things from his childhood behind and to embrace problematic behavior that contradicts his values and temperament. As Suds’s desire to win approval from others grows, his feelings about being a rat change. However, at the end of the novel, Suds ultimately realizes that being a rat means making himself into someone he’s not. In the end, the fourth grade rat motif represents preadolescents’ shifting perspectives on themselves and their place in society as they transition out of childhood and into a stage of enhanced self-awareness.
Baths
Baths have been an important part of Suds’s identity since he was a child. Even as a fourth grader, he often turns to them for relief from negative emotions. His love of baths even earned him his nickname. As he states, “My mother says each time a bubble burst on my face, it made a freckle. She says suds gave me my curly hair too. One thing’s for sure, suds gave me my name” (33). By intertwining Suds’s name and identity with baths, a space of comfort in his childhood, the narrative suggests that for Suds, maintaining his childhood is akin to maintaining his identity. The bath motif recurs throughout the novel to evoke this idea, and whenever the motif reappears, it represents a stable space of liminal reflection where Suds can reflect on his changing identity. Their presence in the novel suggests that some things remain central to a person’s identity no matter what struggles and changes they undergo.
Adulthood
Adulthood is a motif throughout the novel that develops the novel’s explorations on The True Meaning of Maturity. This motif is introduced in Chapter 3 when Joey states that being a rat is the first step to being a man. Joey consistently reinforces this idea throughout the novel, linking the boy’s disruptive behavior to the necessity of growing up and appearing tough. However, Mom challenges Joey’s definition of manhood when she tells Suds that there is more than one way to be a man. Although the moment is written in a humorous tone, her statement foreshadows the lesson that Suds will eventually learn: that taking responsibility for one’s actions is the true essence of maturity. After Suds confesses all his misdeeds to Mom, she explains admitting his faults proves that he is becoming more mature. The adulthood motif therefore supports the novel’s larger message about the how best to emulate a state of maturity. In Spinelli’s view, true maturation is not a matter of conforming to external social expectations, but attaining internal integrity and self-knowledge.
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By Jerry Spinelli
