“What are we on top”
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents“What are we on top?” is a question that gives the Clan’s changed understanding of itself a counterweight to the fact that its members are still rats. Recalled by Peaches when Dangerous Beans is overwhelmed by that fact, it asks him to look beyond what they are underneath toward what they can stand for and build together.
Meaning and Use
Dangerous Beans had used the question before, Peaches reminds him, as he insists that being rats does not exhaust their identity. The wording holds two levels together: their animal nature is real, but so is the perspective and shared purpose that have grown beyond it. Rather than deny what they are, the question redirects attention to what that nature can support.
In the Moment of Crisis
The question returns in a foul darkness, as Dangerous Beans reflects that the rats who ran and squeaked had forgotten how to talk and that, underneath, they were still rats. Peaches agrees, then recalls his former words and urges him to go back, telling him he is not well. Her appeal makes the expression practical as well as philosophical: it is an attempt to draw him out of despair by restoring a more expansive view of the Clan and bringing him back toward safety and companionship.
The Island and the World at Hand
Later, Dangerous Beans expresses the hope that there might be an island where rats could really be rats. Darktan answers that they have already seen where that leads, and doubts that a wonderful island exists in the distance for people like them. He locates the possible island here instead, in their present world, while resisting Sardines’s invitation to dance. Together, the exchange echoes the earlier question: imagining a better place matters, but the challenge is to find what can be made possible where the Clan actually stands.
