" 'Don't be such a damned idiot,' he said. 'Haven't you ever seen a rat?' It was a huge, struggling field rat with a long tail. He held its neck so it couldn't bite. 'Rats can be quite nice,' he said. And he took the rat to the wine glass, slashed its throat, and filled the glass rapidly with blood. The rat then went hurtling over the gallery railing, and Lestat held the wine glass to the candle triumphantly."

Interview with the Vampire ~ Anne Rice

A symbol for the negative, disgusting part of the inner self, it also depicts something grotesque in appearance or some kinds of sexual perversion.

Lestat shows Louis that he can live off the blood of animals by grabbing a rat, slicing its throat, and drinking its blood from a wine goblet. This act reveals Lestat's acceptance of his vampire nature, but the act repulses Louis, foreshadowing how he will continue to feel about himself as a vampire. Yet, ironically enough, his revulsion for killing humans drives him to kill rats and other animals for a period of four years, until he finally targets a human victim.

As they travel by ship, the vampires live off of rats to avoid suspicion. In other situations, rats also serve as nourishment. By the end of IV, Lestat is so weak that he is forced to live on rats to survive. He also lives on rats in his weakened state when he first emerges in 1985, until he has the strength to kill humans again.

In the film Interview with the Vampire, Louis's insistence on drinking only animal blood involves many such scenes with rats. Lestat actually tells him he can easily be tracked just by following the dead rats. Some of the negative critical reactions to these scenes inspired Rice to write a poem she called "The Ballad of the Sad Rat."

I'm a lowly rat
in a vampire movie.
Oh, woe is me,
Who'll bite me first?

Will it be Tom
So cute and curly?
Or pretty Brad
Who looks so hurt?

These hunks from hell
Are all around me.
And how their fangs
Do make me squeak.

Sweet little Kirsten
Won't even pet me.
She just says Yuk,
Though she's very sweet.

Oh, thank you Larry.
Liz Smith, I love you,
And dearest Oprah
How good thou art.

I'm a lowly rat
In a vampire movie.
Your tender words
Do break my heart.

But don't you fret, folks
As you hear my story.
We want no tears
On your velvet and lace!

I'm a Hollywood rat
in a Hollywood movie!
What wouldn't you give
To take my place?

The Vampire Companion ~ Katherine Ramsland