Teacher Guide

The Rattrap Lesson Plan

Introduction to The Rattrap

"The Rattrap" is thought to be one of Selma Lagerlöf's earliest works, likely written in the 1880s. The story was first published in 1933 in Sweden ("Råttfällan") as a part of Lagerlöf's collection of stories, Host. Two years later, the collection was translated into English and published as Harvest. Lagerlöf's training and professional experience as a teacher, place her firmly in a tradition of writing and inventing fables and didactic tales to teach children how to behave and mold them into empathetic young adults.

The text follows a moment in the life of an unnamed vagabond who sells rat traps to scrape by. The vagabond develops a theory that the whole world is comparable to a rat...

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