Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh: Setting

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Setting

Where does Mrs.Frisby and her family of field mice live in Robert C. O'Brien's book Mrs.Frisby and he rats of Nimh? You guessed it ... they "lived in an underground house in a vegetable garden of a farmer named Mr.Fitzgibbion" (pg.3) Where they struggle to stay alive.

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"It's a story about mice and rats - but they're very human little things.

Mrs Frisby is having a worrying time bringing up her young family since she lost her husband. Her youngest, Timothy, is a bit of a weakling and falls rather seriously ill just at the beginning of spring. This is bad timing because in the spring the mice have to leave their winter home in the vegetable garden, and go to live in the woods well away from all the human activity. So what can Mrs Frisby do when she realizes that Timothy is not well enough to move?

Well, first of all she seeks the advice of the wise old owl. This involves a hair-raising flight on the back of a crow, straight to the owl's home in the trunk of an old tree in the woods. It's a bit of a nerve-wracking visit because mice are, after all, known to be a tasty tit-bit for a hungry owl. The owl advises Mrs Frisby to seek the help of the rats.

Now, the rats who live under the old rose bush are a very special breed of rat. Mrs Frisby can see that as soon as she is allowed into their hole. These rats, they have electric lights and lifts and they teach their young to read! To her surprise, they seem perfectly willing to help her with her problem - they'll simply move the whole concrete block that the Frisby family live in, to a more suitable place. The only thing is, Mrs Frisby can't understand why the rats should go to any trouble at all to help her.