the rat

The rat comes to visit Joe to eat the side of him where he has a wound that will not heal. The rat comes from a memory of seeing a Prussian officer getting his face eaten by a rat. When Joe start to get pain in his side he think it is a rat. The rat represents the pain and the idea that he can do nothing but feel the pain. The rat also represents the want to die; Joe can do nothing but let a rat eat away at him. This makes it so all Joe wants is to be put out of this pain. Joe is the one in a million that will have to live with is for the rest of his life an he will always have this rat eating away at him because the rat is the pain of going through the day where you are dieing inside but not outside.