Mrs.+Frisby+and+the+Rats+of+NIMH+Essay

Taylor Reilly April 10, 2012 Humanities 6C

The novel __Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH__, by Robert O’Brien, explains about three key traits needed in order to be civilized. These three traits are self-sufficiency, intelligence, and specialization of labor. These traits are shown in different stories within the book __Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH__. Here are some examples of these traits used for being civilized. One trait that is needed to be civilized was self-sufficiency. By being civilized you can’t rely on others to provide food and any other tool or sheltered object necessary to survive. Self-sufficiency is basically a word that means providing for yourself and others in your civilization. Nicodemus and the rats, at the start of their civilization where living on Mr. Fitzgibbon’s farm. They took his food and tapped into his water and electricity lines and were not providing anything for themselves. Soon the rats realized that not only was this making their civilization weaker because they were not self-sufficient, but the rats would soon be found and possibly even exterminated by someone from NIMH looking for them or just caught and sent back to NIMH. This is when they thought of the plan which included moving to a new location, a place called Thorn Valley which is in the forest, to live in. The rats were also going to be providing for themselves by growing their own food, making their own electricity and finding their own source of running water. The idea of planning to move away when the rats already had a simple life stealing from others to provide for themselves made Jenner, Nicodemus’s friend, mad. Jenner thought that stealing from people was fine, but Nicodemus thought it was wrong to steal. This is why Jenner left with seven others to live a life fulL of stealing. What did this get Jenner and his friends? It got them dead while trying to steal a motor. This is how self-sufficiency plays a big part in civilization. Self-sufficiency is not the only thing that helps to be civilized; intelligence is a big part of civilization too. Civilization means that you have the right knowledge, tools, and shelter to survive. In order to obtain knowledge you must have some intelligence. Nicodemus, Justin, Brutus, Author and the other rats from NIMH demonstrate the intelligence in the book. They were all injected with a serum at NIMH, or The National Institute of Mental Health. For example, the rats couldn’t have just known how to use all of the tools that helped create their civilization, the rats had to read and learn how to use them. The rats, when in the Boniface Estate, found books and read them, this was how the rats got a lot of their knowledge. The rats also under go missions from time to time and they need to plan ahead with intelligence so that they don’t get caught. One example of a mission was when the rats were planning ahead on every little detail of moving Mrs. Frisby’s house so that they could save her son Timothy from the plow and the weather. This is how intelligence is needed in order to be civilized. Lastly, to be civilized you need to have specialization of labor. Specialization of labor is when you have different people, or in this case rats, doing different jobs so that not everyone is doing the same job. If people aren’t doing all the same jobs and they are separating and doing different jobs then things get done faster. To start a civilization you have to get the basic things that are necessary in order to survive, done faster. Every time the rats go on a mission or even when they are in their cave, every rat has an assigned job. For example, when the rats were moving Mrs. Frisby’s house, nine rats were pulling on each rope to hoist up the house on a pulley system, and two were rearranging the logs that were used as rollers to roll the house to its new location. When the rats were escaping from NIMH, the leaders of the escape each had an assigned job. Justin the rat was covering up the rats tracks by rolling up the thread they left out to find their way to the escape screen. One rat would pry the mesh screen open at the end of the tunnels which would let them free and Nicodemus was leading the group along the air duct tunnels. This is how specialization of labor plays a part in being civilized. Civilization is when you or a group of others have the knowledge and tools necessary in order to survive. Three traits that help to be more civilized are specialization of labor, intelligence, and self-sufficiency. Examples of these traits helping in civilization are shown in the book __Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.__ If you are not civilized then these three tarits could help you to get on the track of being civlized. This was how these few traits helped in civilization and examples of them working from the book __Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.__