Today I read the short story The Rat Trap, by Selma Lagerlöf. The story begins by introducing a character who sells rat traps for a living, but doesn’t make much money and so thinks of the whole world as a rat trap, with money, gourmet food, large mansions, and other such items as the cheese in the trap. While I agree that, to some people, money and other worldly items may act as a rat trap, I disagree that the world as a whole is a rat trap. There are many activities that people can do for pleasure, such as reading, dancing, playing sports, and more that aren’t rat traps because they don’t trap people into anything. For example, I’ll be participating in NaNoWriMo — National Novel Writing Month — in just two days, simply because I enjoy writing. When a far wealthier man assumes that he is an old friend, he is treated well until the wealthier man realizes that he is, in fact, merely a tramp. The man’s daughter, however, persuades her father to let the seller of the rat traps stay for another day, and in treating him like a gentleman she gains a valuable gift in return — he steals nothing from their house and even leaves her a rat trap. Naturally, she is delighted at his behavior. This simple story illustrates the fact that when you treat people one way, they become that way — because Edla, the man’s daughter, treated the tramp as a gentleman, he acted like a gentleman and stole nothing, leaving a rat trap for them in return. I would rate this story 9.7/10 and recommend it to anyone interested in reading a simple, but heartwarming short story.
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