"You Dirty Rat"

Sterotyping the Poor Rat:

A rat is not a terrible animal. Rats do not have the characteristics that most people associate with them. They simply got a bad name because of the Plague and the fact that they're crafty and it's hard to keep them out of stuff. Because they inconvience humans these little critters have gotten an undeserved negative reputation.

Peter's animagus form is a rat, so many people look at that stereotype and go, 'Ah! well of course he sold his friends out. He's a dirty rat" or "Peter's a rat physically and metaphorically." Well ok, yes sadly 'You dirty Rat" has entered the american vernacular with extremely negative conotations; however, that idea of the "evil" rat really has no basis in reality. If you know about rats, then it seems ludicrous to say that Peter is clearly a bad person because his animagi form, reflecting his personality, is a rat.

First off, rats are exceedingly social. They live in groups and the will look after each other. You know how most animals treat their sick right? They'll leave the poor animal to get eaten, or abandon it, or what not.
Well rats will be espcially nice to another injured rat, bringing him food or bedding, and grooming him. And they're very careful around the sick or injured, as though the understand they need to be gentle. Rats also look after each other by having a kind of disignated scout rat and a food taster rat, to look for hazardous situations and warn the others.
Because they're very social, they like company and they like playing. Rats will get horribly lonely and upset if they're left alone (My roomates rat pined for her so badly when she left for college he stopped eating and died) In fact, it's advisable that if you get a pet rat, you should either be able to spend lots of time with him, or get him a friends or several friends because rats are social/pack animals, not loners.

Second, rats are clever. The reason that get such a bad rap from us is probably because (Well ok ignoring the plague incident) they can get into just about anything. They're exceedingly good at getting into, out of, and around any obstecle in order to get what they want. Heck, a rat is built for exploring, given the structure of it's feet, and their extremely nimble hands.
Not only are they dexterious, and clever that way, but rats are just smart. That's the reason you have to try and train a rat in psyche expirments. They remeber well, and thus are easier to train. However, they also learn. They won't eat a food again if it makes them sick. this brings me to my next point.

Perhaps my biggest pet peeve accusation against the rat is the "cowerdly rat" assumption. They're not cowardly, only cautious. Rats will scout an area to make sure it's safe. However, their cautiousness can give way to a kind of stupidity. They will often be overly curious about something, and get themselves caught or killed that way. These wild rats in my house would poke their heads out to see if my cat Molly was there. Then they'd scamper out, if she cam running, they'd hide, but they'd keep sticking their heads out as if to check every minute on whether the cat was there. So they'd die, becuase Molly would never leave, just hold still until eventualy El Stupido woud try and make a run back across the floor. (They're bright but not in a commons sense way apperently *L*)

Also, the phrase "you Dirty Rat" is funny in that, rats are clean animals. the groom themselves, they groom they're friends, and the keep their living space as tidy as they can manage. Now, In cities, rats might get dirty and grouse, but that's simply due to the location where they live, not to their own natures.

As you can see, rats are not the evil, scary, nasty creatures that they often get portrayed as.

So what has this all to do with Peter? Glad you asked
So if an animagus form reflects ther person personality, Then Peter was likely a very social person who did not like being on his own or left out. He was probably a chief explorer when plotting the map, and was likely very curiouse about things he'd be better off leaving alone. However, he may have been seen as a hang up simply because he would be more cautious than say Sirius before proceeding. Also, he was probably on the tidy side. Finally, Peter might not have been overly loud unless he was distressed , because rats are generally quite. if you hear a squeek, something has upset the rat. I see Peter like that. Not saying too much unless he got upset, and then it would be this squeak of protest.
However, you remeber I talked bout rats being trainable? Peter may be as well, through negative/positive reinforcement (which I discuss inmy rant on torture). Howeve,r that's not that unique a characteristic. Most humans learn thing that way. You know, touch something hot, get burned, don't touch something hot again; in fact, rats react and learn in ways very similar to humans. That's why rats are used in so many sociology expirments. rat communities often are closer to human communities than other fast breeding small animals.

And that's my character analysis based on Peter's animagus form

And just for the record, rats are smarter than dogs =P (ok that's purely my opnion, I don't have an research on that, but the rats I've seen sure act smarter than my dog!)

So none of this, Peter was a little worm even at Hogwarts because, look, his animagus form is a rat. Rats are fine little critters, and a symbol of good forturne or something positive in the chinese calender.
One a finale note, why in the name of heaven did Ron keep picking poor Scabbers up by the tail! You do not hold a rat like that. It can really hurt him. Poor Scabbers!

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