Until the age of about thirteen, Arrietty Clock lives and communicates only with her parents, Pod and Homily Clock. Author Mary Norton’s portrait of the Clock family, the borrowing protagonists of the 1952 novel, The Borrowers, depicts relatable family life with a teenager. The Clock family’s teenage daughter, Arrietty, begins to want more than what her loving parents have to offer her within their comfortable home. In Mary Norton’s coming of age work, Arrietty seeks increased physical freedom, knowledge, and relationships beyond the world that she shares with her parents.

Arrietty wants knowledge

In a confined space, with only two other people, and limited resources, Arriety senses that there is much she does not know. Furthermore, Arriety’s parents are not always forthcoming. Pod and Homily sometimes refuse to offer satisfying explanations, even for the occurrences they mention themselves. Her parents often refer to the fate of Arriety’s young cousin, Eggletina, as a reason why Arriety must not leave their home. Arriety presses them: “‘what,’ Eggletina would ask, ‘did happen to Eggletina?’ But no one would ever say” (p. 13). Arriety wants information to better understand her extended family, and also the thinking behind her parents’ expectations. Arriety’s parents do finally tell her Eggletina’s story, and the dangers of the wider world, but they do not lessen Arriety’s desire to go outside. When Arrietty does venture outside their home, she makes a friend that helps her access even more knowledge. She and her new friend spend much of their time with books. When her friend asks Arrietty to read him one of her books, she tells him that she prefers to read new books (p. 127). Arrietty learns about the earth, and joyously shares her new information with her parents. She asks them: “Did you know that the Arctic night lasts six months, and that the distance between the two poles is less than that between the two extremities of a diameter drawn through the equator?” (p. 133). Arrietty fascinates herself with new geographic regions, and wonders at spatial comparisons that help her comprehend the true size of the earth. Through the books, Arrietty also learns more about herself: “She learned a lot and some of the things she learned were hard to accept. She was made to realize once and for all that this earth on which they lived turning about in space did not revolve, as she had believed, for the sake of little people” (p. 132). Much of the new information Arrietty discovers challenges her opinions. As her knowledge of the world increases, her understanding of herself also changes. She comes to see herself in a greater context, and becomes more humble. Despite the challenges, the days she spends learning are “happy days to look back on afterwards” (p. 131). Over the course of the novel, Arrietty seeks and finally obtains more information about herself, her family’s history, and the earth in general.

Arrietty wants freedom

The first time that Arrietty cries in Mary Norton’s novel is when the family talks about a journey outdoors. Arrietty’s eyes fill with tears and she cries: “I bet [Eggletina] just ran away because she hated being cooped up…day after day…week after week…year after year…Like I do! Gates…gates, gates, gates…” (p. 49). Despite the comfort of her home, and the love she has for her parents, and despite the dangers of the outside world, Arrietty yearns to go outdoors. She can understand her cousin Eggeltina’s secret trip outside because Arrietty too feels, “cooped up,” like a domestic animal. She thinks of the days, weeks, and years that pass while she must stay in her home. The gates, which she is not strong enough to open, are her barriers. After some further reasoning, Arriety’s parents eventually agree that she may go outside and learn the ways of borrowing. The first time Pod takes Arrietty out to borrow, Arrietty pushes the boundaries: “Pod came again to the top of the step and looked along the path. ‘Don’t you go far,’ he said after a moment. Seeing his lips move, she smiled back at him: she was too far already to hear the words’’ (p. 67). A visit outside alongside her father is not enough for Arrietty. She wanders farther away than her father intends for her, and feels no fear when she can no longer hear him. After her first visit outside with her father, Arrietty endeavors to sneak out on her own. While her father is out, she remembers that he keeps the gates open as long as he is out. She realizes that during one of his outings is her chance to escape as well: “Arrietty suddenly was sitting bolt upright: a thought had struck her, leaving her breathless and a little shaky at the knees…the gates would be open!” (p. 106). As if struck by lightning, her attention is suddenly piqued. She is excited to the point of breathlessness and shaking, and sees a chance which she takes. Arriety’s reactions are most extreme regarding her physical freedom: She cries when she talks about her confinement to the indoors, and feels such excitement at the thought of being outdoors that her emotions manifest physically.

Arriety wants relationships

With no one besides her parents to talk to, Arriety sometimes chooses to share her thoughts in a diary. One evening while her father is out and her mother is busy with housework, Arrietty gets her diary. She, “…stared a moment, deep in thought…She had kept [her diary] for nearly two years already, and today, 22nd March, she read last year’s entry: “Mother’s cross.” She thought a while longer then, at last, she put ditto marks under “mother,” and “worried” under ‘cross’” (p. 22). The only other time Arrietty cries in the story, is when she thinks of the possibility that she might be the last Borrower on earth one day. The first chance she gets, Arriety tries to establish contact with her extended family. She writes a letter to her Uncle Hendreary, her Aunt Lupy and her cousins, which reads: “I hope you are quite well and the cousins are well and Aunt Lupy. We are very well and I am learning to borrow…Write a letter on the back please” (p. 94). She writes to her extended family without her parents’ knowledge, and with the simple desire to form bonds with other Borrowers. Arrietty also becomes attached to the human boy in the big house. Once she meets him, she wants to spend more time with him: “Arriety usually enjoyed this spring sorting…She used to love turning over the scraps of silk or lace…But this year Arriety banged about impatiently and stole away whenever she dared, to stare through the grating, hoping to see the boy” (p. 96). Once she has a friend, Arriety’s solitary pastimes no longer sustain her. Her preference is to spend time with the boy. As a thirteen year old, Arrietty seeks more ways to express herself, outside of her relationship with her parents. She writes in a diary, tries to be friendly with her extended family, and pursues a friendship with another child.

As she enters her teenage years, young Arrietty Clock yearns to explore. She seeks knowledge, experiences, and relationships that she cannot obtain from her parents within their home. Arriety’s intellectual, physical, and interpersonal curiosity arises not from any shortcomings of her parents or environment, but from a natural progression. Arriety’s curiosity indicates the natural maturation of a child towards adulthood. Happily for Arriety, her parents allow her to venture further than her childhood home, and find the learning, wide world, and friendships that she desires.

References

Norton, M. (1952). The Borrowers. Harcourt, Inc.