Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Justin and Mr. Ages come into the office with Dragon’s medicine. According to Nicodemus’s plan, Mrs. Frisby goes home to feed her children lunch and check on them while the rats devise the details of moving the cinder block. It is to be done at 11 o’clock, after everyone is sure to be asleep. Mrs. Frisby is to return to the rosebush in the afternoon for instructions on administering the medicine. When Mrs. Frisby arrives home, she tells the children that the rats are going to move the house but nothing about Jonathan or anything else. They are skeptical, especially Timothy, who wonders why an owl or some rats would want to help them. Mrs. Frisby leaves again after lunch to head back to the rosebush. Justin invites her inside and decides to show Mrs. Frisby the mysterious Plan. He takes her to the main hall, which is actually an enormous cave, and there are dozens of rats hard at work, welding, cutting, hauling, and building. Justin then shows Mrs. Frisby the plow Nicodemus invented. He explains they are stockpiling seeds of all different kinds of foods, such as barley, oats, tomatoes, and beets. The Plan, Justin explains, is to grow their own food to “live without stealing” (155). In other words, the rats are going to try and go against the very nature of being a rat and better themselves in a moral sense.

Back in Nicodemus’s office once more, Mrs. Frisby hears about what happened after the rats left the Boniface Estate. Nicodemus expresses that his favorite thing to read while they lived there those eight months was history. He learned of monks who “led the simplest kind of lives, and studied and wrote; they grew their own food, built their own houses and furniture” (157), and this knowledge inspired Nicodemus’s ideas of how the rats may live in the future: a self-sustaining society. Nicodemus also read about rats and how disliked they were by people in general and reasoned that this must be mainly due to rats’ nature of stealing for food. He read about rats’ use in experimentation due to their being biologically similar to humans. Nicodemus also learned about rats of the past, which evolved into prairie dogs, and who seemed to be quite organized and advanced until they were forced onto the fringes to become scavengers. Nicodemus reasons that, if rats had been allowed to advance instead of apes, they would perhaps have developed much the same way, with reading and writing, tools, and other machinery. At the same time, it would have ended up quite different because rats are still fundamentally different from humans.

After leaving the estate, the rats made their way into a nearby nature preserve and stumbled across a campsite that belonged to an old man who lay dead nearby. He must have died from a heart attack or something similar, and his truck indicated that he was a toy maker and repairer. The rats reason that the man probably has no heirs and claim the toy tinker’s truck as their own.

Inside the toy tinker’s truck was a treasure of useful items for the rats, including his bed and lamp, food, and a great deal of toys, which they at first saw no use for. They found a box of replacement engines for toys of varying sizes and, best of all, the tinker’s tools: “screwdrivers, saws, hammers, clamps, vises, wrenches, pliers” (164) and more. Furthermore, because the tools were meant for toy repair, they were the perfect size for the rats. The rats realized the potential of what they had found and determined that the cave they spotted nearby the other day, the one near a farmhouse, would be perfect to plug the tinker’s extension cord into and begin making and doing whatever they feel like. The rats began setting up their new living quarters at the farm, digging an entrance through the rosebush and tapping the electricity from the shed to their home. The rats hauled as much out of the truck as possible until one day it was not there anymore. They set up running water in the cave as well. Over time, their colony grew. The rats taught their children what they knew and encouraged them to learn even more.

Soon, the rats started installing and developing luxuries like fancy furniture and bigger rooms. Nicodemus describes a “creeping disease” (166) that came upon the rats as they grew greedy and lavish, but nobody seemed to do anything about it. Nicodemus tells Mrs. Frisby an allegory about a woman who buys a vacuum cleaner even though she was able to keep her house perfectly clean with a broom and mop. Soon, everyone in the town has a vacuum cleaner. A new powerplant is built to supply the new machines, covering the town in soot. Soon, the women’s floors are twice as dirty as before, and they are never able to get them quite as clean as they were “before Mrs. Jones ever bought a vacuum in the first place” (167). This is known as the Rat Race, in which no matter how fast anyone goes or how hard they work, they never seem to get any further. Nicodemus points out that it should instead be called a People Race since “no sensible rats would ever do anything so foolish” (168). Nicodemus points out that he and the other rats became caught up in this race anyway, worried that their lives were becoming too easy and dull. The rats were now “stealing more than ever before” (168), from both the truck and the farmer, and because “a thief’s life is always based on somebody else’s work” (168), the rats lacked purpose. On top of it all, the possibility of being found out by Mr. Fitzgibbon was and is ever-present.

Nicodemus, the leader of the rats, began taking long walks in the forest beyond the rosebush, deep in thought about how to solve this dilemma. He had a feeling that they must move into the forest and stop stealing altogether, but he needed advice. He was advised by some chipmunks to seek out the wise old owl, and thus began Nicodemus’s friendship with the owl. The owl told Nicodemus about Thorn Valley, which is “deep in the forest, beyond the big tree” (170). It is too rocky and steep for jeeps, so people seem never to go there, and at its bottom is a large valley with ponds. The valley lies on the opposite side of the mountain, and a few days after his meeting with the owl Nicodemus and Jenner climbed up to view it. Nicodemus describes it as “beautiful and still, a wild and lonely place” (171). Nicodemus voiced his thoughts to Jenner about moving to this valley and growing their own food, with or without electricity. Jenner argued that life is great where they are and there was no need to change, and he also denied that rats steal at all, believing it to just be part of the natural order. Jenner wants to build a rat civilization inside the cave where they currently reside, with all of the luxuries at their behest. Nicodemus disagreed, telling Jenner, “We’re just living on the edge of someone else’s [civilization], like fleas on a dog’s back. If the dog drowns, the fleas drown, too” (173). Nicodemus does not want to rely on stealing or humans at all anymore, believing that doing so is precisely the cause of the rats’ suffering. Nicodemus then explains to Mrs. Frisby that most of the food and supplies have already been moved to Thorn Valley, and by June the rats hope to leave the farm forever.

Mrs. Frisby wants to know why Jonathan never told her any of the things Nicodemus just did. Mr. Ages explains that Jonathan did not want to burden Mrs. Frisby with the knowledge of her aging while he stayed young for an unknown amount of time. She would most likely die long before him. Mr. Ages explains that Jonathan did mean to tell her eventually but died before he did. Finally, it is time for Mrs. Frisby to go give Dragon the sleeping powder, and Justin and Mr. Ages escort her out of the rosebush.

Mr. Ages tells Mrs. Frisby the details of their plan, including how Mrs. Fitzgibbon will likely be in the house and that Dragon himself will likely be outside waiting for his food. They lead her to the hole in the farmhouse, and Justin takes her inside. Mrs. Frisby creeps through the space between the cabinet and the floor, waiting for the food bowl to be filled. When it is, she dashes out and puts the powder in Dragon’s food. She is almost back under the cabinet when Billy, the youngest Fitzgibbon boy, traps her underneath a colander. This was not something anyone was anticipating, and the world around Mrs. Frisby quickly goes dark.

Mrs. Frisby is put in a bird cage above the kitchen and sits in fear, wondering what will happen to her and her children outside. She overhears the Fitzgibbons having a conversation about “mechanized rats” (189) that electrocuted themselves to death at a hardware store nearby. It appeared they were trying to steal a motor and it short circuited. These rats were most likely Jenner and his followers. The story caught the government’s attention, as they were certain it was the rats from the lab. However, the rats had already been disposed of, so the government was searching for others. Mr. Fitzgibbon happened to mention that he had several at his farm, and now the inspectors are set to come over and examine the situation to determine if they are also lab rats. Next, the family discusses the fact that the health inspectors are planning to bring cyanide gas to gas out any rats that may be living underground at the farm, and they may bulldoze the rosebush as well. They mention a “Doctor Somebody” (192), most likely Dr. Schultz. Mrs. Frisby becomes desperate to escape her cage to warn Nicodemus and the others about what is going to happen.

Night falls on the farm and Justin comes into the kitchen to free Mrs. Frisby after everyone is asleep. Mrs. Frisby tells Justin about the health inspectors and the dead rats, warning him that they have only one more day before their home will be gassed. Justin is grateful to Mrs. Frisby and takes her back to her home, where the rats are attempting to move the cinder block. Mrs. Frisby’s neighbor, the shrew, is defending the home, believing the rats to be stealing it. Mrs. Frisby corrects her and finally convinces her to let the rats do their job. The rats attach several cords to the block after digging it out and begin heaving it out onto a set of rollers. The cinder block slides forward “easily, like a truck on wheels, in the direction of the new hole” (202). They successfully lower the block into the new hole using the same process they did to lift it out and fill the hole with dirt and cover it with turf. They also dig the family a new entrance tunnel. Mrs. Frisby is told that she and her children can go inside and make themselves at home.

Mrs. Frisby awakens the next morning with a newfound sense of peace and relief. She and her children are safe, the cinder block can become a permanent winter home, and they can all look forward to a summer by the brook. Soon after, Brutus comes to the home asking for Mrs. Frisby to come to a meeting. She goes and finds every rat in the society has gathered together. Nicodemus announces his thanks to Mrs. Frisby for the information and asks her to explain everything she knows first-hand. After hearing everything, Nicodemus is certain the people coming are from NIMH, and they make a plan to seal up the cave and get rid of all evidence that they had formed a civilization there. Nicodemus regrets to announce that, to avoid any suspicion or having the people find the new establishment in Thorn Valley, ten rats must stay behind and show themselves. The plan is to escape the cave before the gas reaches them and run into the forest. Many rats volunteer, but it is decided that Nicodemus, Brutus, Justin, and seven others will stay. Mrs. Frisby walks home solemnly, worried that these marvelous rats will perish the next morning. She will also miss them if they do survive and leave for Thorn Valley.

Mrs. Frisby wakes up on the day of the bulldoze and makes her way to a high vantage point where she can watch everything that happens. The bulldozer is set up and a white truck pulls up. Dr. Schultz and a few other men appear and begin examining the scene before them. The bulldozing commences, and Mrs. Frisby watches in terror and disbelief. A masked man in white comes out with a hose and puts it into the hole leading into the rats’ now former home. They set a cage over what they think is the escape hole, although Mrs. Frisby knows the rats planned to dig another out of sight. Suddenly, seven rats pop out of another hole in the bramble and dart toward the men and then off into the woods. Then more rats appear and do the same, and Mrs. Frisby realizes it is the same group of rats tricking the men into thinking that they have witnessed many more than seven. Eventually those seven make their way into the woods to safety. One other comes out, stumbles, and falls down on his side; he appears to have been gassed. Two others never come out at all. The men realize they were fooled and begin digging up the real tunnel instead, finding the other two rats dead inside the storage room. Dr. Schultz guesses that they must have warned the others upon smelling the gas but did not make it out alive. Dr. Schultz picks them up and puts them in a bag and into the van.

After everyone leaves, Mrs. Frisby rushes down to check on the rat she saw moving in the bramble. Mr. Ages is there, and the rat is Brutus, unconscious from breathing in the gas. Mr. Ages gives him an antidote, and Brutus awakens, reporting that he only remembers being shoved out of the cave by another rat, who went back to save a third. Mrs. Frisby remarks that that other rat is now dead, and Mr. Ages says, “Whoever he was, he was brave” (224).

A few days later, Mrs. Frisby awakens to the sound of the plow. Mr. Fitzgibbon plows around the rock and misses the Frisby home by about two feet, just as the rats predicted. She feels safe at last. As the spring turns into summer, Mrs. Frisby knows the garden is becoming “too busy a place for mice to live comfortably” (227), so she and her children make their way to their summer home by the brook. Timothy seems to have fully healed, and the children immediately dive into their summer life upon arriving there. Mrs. Frisby decides she can now tell her children the story of their father and the rats, knowing they may very well grow up to be different as well. So, “beginning at the beginning, with her first visit to the rats, she [tells] them all that she had seen and done, and all that Nicodemus had told her” (229-30). The children are amazed at everything they hear and saddened to know that two of the rats never made it out. They predict the second rat must have been Justin, given how brave and helpful he was, but they will never know for sure. Martin wonders about going to visit the rats some day, perhaps on Jeremy’s back, to find out if they managed to create their civilization. Mrs. Frisby says it can be a conversation for another day, and the family go to sleep together, warm, safe, and forever wondering about the rats.