The mental status of the rats seems a little unclear. Clearly, they are seen as possessing far less than normal human intelligence. They are treated as animals (rats!) and have to be carefully instructed to perform even simple tasks. For example, the trainer in Muct says "You tell a rat to take a shit, you gotta remember to tell 'er to pull her pants down first and pull 'em up afterwards." (14) Yet the man at the RAT institute says the procedure to become a rat will not change the narrator in the prologue, (5) and indeed it does not seem to other than the obvious effect on his will. He had trouble understanding things before; he still does after. However, after he gets the glove, the narrator is able to learn quickly and well, and it seems to be implied that his lack of understanding and personality before was largely caused by a lack of knowledge, the cycle of stupidity. (29) Once he begins to learn things, he feels and acts much more intelligent, and much more like a person. But if this is true, then why are all rats seen as stupid? Is it simply prejudice, a prejudice that they cannot combat because they have lost their volition? If not, how can the narrator's seemingly "natural" and curable stupidity be reconciled with the apparent loss of intellectual ability experienced by other rats?