Rats figure in the novel as symbols of poverty, shame, and dehumanization. Joe Clear lost his beloved job as the superintendent of the Catholic cemetery and, as a subtle form of punishment for involving himself with Protestant rebels, Father Gaunt assigned him to catch rats. The assignment subtly hints at Joe’s supposed disobedience and dishonor for helping the Protestant Free Staters against the wishes of the Catholic IRA. More importantly, the assignment was Father Gaunt’s revenge against Joe Clear for being in the RIC, in which he “hunted down his fellow countrymen like rats” (178). Similarly, when recounting the bombing of Belfast during the Second World War, Roseanne compares the Germans’ method of bombing people out of their homes to methods of eliminating rat infestation, not unlike her father’s practice of soaking the rodents in paraffin and throwing them onto a bonfire.

As she descended further into madness, Cissy bought an Ansonia clock but never allowed it to tick, out of fear that rats would hear and find the clock. Cissy bought the expensive clock to feel better about one thing in her life—long fed up with her poverty and what she perceived as the dreariness of Ireland.