Essay Questions

Why does Arrietty trust The Boy so much that she puts her family in jeopardy?

Arrietty is an only child who lives in isolation and is very lonely. She has definitely inherited her parents' wariness when it comes to staying hidden from adults but when she meets another child she is so excited to have a playmate that she thinks of him more as another kid rather than as a person who is a threat to her existence. Because he is very nice to her and seems to want to be part of her family instead of part of his own, they have an easy trust that makes Arrietty feel as though her parents' warnings do not apply to The Boy.

Do you think The Boy made the entire story of his encounter with The Borrowers up?

Throughout the book, the story of The Boy's encounter with the Borrowers seems like a genuine event which he told his older sisters about. The way that Mrs May tells the story also implies that she believes it, especially having gone to the badgers set herself and called for Arrietty, Homily and Pod. At the end of the book, though, she does sow a seed of doubt by admitting that the way Arrietty wrote the letter "e" was exactly the same as the way her brother did, implying that perhaps he had made the whole account up to impress them.

Did Homily's desire for a well decorated home contribute to the Clock family's departure from the house?

Homily always prides herself on having a lovely home and the more pretty things she accumulates the more she wants to accumulate. Pod is increasingly concerned that the things The Boy is borrowing for them are going to be missed and he turns out to be right. Homily is proud that they are the last of the Borrowers to live in the large house but had she refrained from borrowing quite so rapidly and so much they might not have been discovered.