The Stump and the rat

In these chapters we see how completely helpless Joe is. He has no arms, no legs, he can't see, his tongue is gone and he practically has no face. He is as useless as a stump of a tree. Although that is not very nice and is very unfortunate it is kind of the truth and I have a great amount of sympathy for him. One night a rat decides to pay Joe a little visit. The rat begins to crawl all over Joe and started gnawing at his skin and open sores. The rat simply reminds Joe of how helpless he is because the rat is all over Joe and he can't do one thing to get the rat off of him. The rat represented the healthy enemy and the sick allies and friends dieing and passing away all around Joe. He also realizes that the rat only visits him while he is asleep but when he wakes up he sees the nurse. He can't exactly tell what is reality and when he is awake because he never really knows if the rat is there since he can't see. The rat is symbolic for all the problems Joe is having in his life and how much his life has gone down the drain.