Lab rats

While lab rats feature literally in the novel they are also symbolic, representing freedom and captivity. Rosemary marvels at the rats from her father’s laboratory that Lowell keeps as pets, at how in one moment they can arbitrarily be transformed from a ‘data point’ to a ‘cherished pet’, demonstrative of the complete domination humans have over animals. In Fern’s case, she has been transformed from a cherished sibling to a life in a cage.

Other lab rats that Lowell sets free in his father’s lab symbolise resilience. They go on living for many years around the city, showing their high adaptability to new environments, and contrast the main characters who struggle to adapt to their new lives following the devastating end to the family project.

Lab rats may also be thought of as representing all animals used in research, entertainment and other purposes. Voiceless animals are the hidden cost from which humans have derived great benefits in medical studies, but painful cosmetic experiments raise many ethical questions. Animal rights groups attempt to raise awareness of these issues, however as Lowell’s character foretells, the world is premised on the misery of others and that truth is confronting.

Lab Rat Quotes

I was made to remove my watch, shoes, and belt, and taken barefoot into a cage with bars and a sticky floor. (Rosemary at the county police station) Part 1 Chapter 2

Lowell’s room smelled of damp cedar from the cage where three rats, washouts from our father’s lab, would chirp and creak in their spinning wheel all night long. In retrospect, there was something incomprehensibly strange about the way any of the laboratory rats could transform from data point to pet, with names and privileges and vet appointments, in a single afternoon. (about Lowell’s rats) Part 2 Chapter 4

Was my father kind to animals? I thought so as a child, but I knew less about the lives of lab rats then. Let’s just say that my father was kind to animals unless it was in the interest of science to be otherwise. (Rosemary, about her father) Part 2 Chapter 6

Most of the rats Lowell had released were recaptured, but not all. Despite our father’s dire predictions, some survived that winter and the next one, too. They went on to have full lives – sex, travel, and adventure. (the rats Lowell set free from his father’ s lab) Part 3

‘The world runs,’ Lowell said, ‘on the fuel of this endless, fathomless misery. People know it, but they don’t mind what they don’t see. Make them look and they mind, but you’re the one they hate, because you’re the one that made them look.’ (Lowell, on the use of animals by humans) Part 5 Chapter 3

Madame Defarge

Madame Defarge is a ventriloquist’s dummy that Rosemary finds in a suitcase the airline sends her after mistaking it as the one the airline has lost. Named by Rosemary after the fictional character in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, she symbolises the rebellion and violence of the French Revolution in which her namesake was involved. Rosemary initially finds the doll strange but, just as she did with Fern and her imaginary friend Mary, Rosemary interacts with Madame Defarge by attributing her with human characteristics, anthropomorphising her. Rosemary warms up to and grows attached to the doll, ascribing her a personality and voice.

Harlow is immediately drawn to Madame Defarge, and takes the doll out to a bar with her boyfriend Reg and Rosemary. As a drama student, Harlow may be attracted to the theatrical quality of the doll or to the wild and violent persona for which she is named. In a final act of defiance, being well aware of Rosemary’s strong intention to return the doll to its rightful owner, Harlow steals Madame Defarge, perhaps metaphorically enlisting her support as a revolutionary in the cause she is joining Lowell to fight.

Madame Defarge Quotes

From the look on Madame Defarge’s face, I could see that everything was going exactly as she’d planned. ‘Don’t spoil my fun’, Madame Defarge said. (Rosemary, when Ezra and Harlow play with Madame Defarge) Part 3 Chapter 6

She was sitting on Harlow’s lap, weaving her head from side to side and unhinging her jaw like a cobra. (Madame Defarge) Part 4 Chapter 2

Men were buying drinks for Madame Defarge. Part 4 Chapter 2

In my head, I finished the grid I’d started in the holding cell, the grid of what was missing and for how long. One, my bicycle; two, Madame Defarge; three, the journals; four, my brother.
Five: Fern. (Rosemary) Part 4 Chapter 4

‘I hardly knew you,’ I said. ‘And now you’re leaving me’. Her uncanny valley eyes stared up. She snapped her reptilian jaw. I made her wrap her arms around my neck as if she were also sorry. Her knitting needles poked my ear sharply until I shifted her.
‘Please don’t go,’ she said. Or maybe I said that. It was definitely one of us. (Rosemary and Madame Defarge) Part 4 Chapter 5

Once upon a time, there was a happy family – a mother, a father, a son, and two daughters. The older daughter was smart and agile, covered in hair and very beautiful. The younger was ordinary. Still, their parents and their brother loved them both. (Madame Defarge performing Fern’s life) Part 6 Chapter 6