How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Everything they had was borrowed; they had nothing of their own at all. Nothing. In spite of this, my brother said, they were touchy and conceited, and thought they owned the world. (1.44)
That's pretty weird. The borrowers have absolutely nothing, yet they think they own everything. Or maybe that's the point. Because if nothing belongs to anyone, per se… if you're always just borrowing from someone else… well then no one really owns anything in the first place.
Quote #2
They thought human beings were just invented to do the dirty work—great slaves put there for them to use. At least, that's what they told each other. (1.46)
Mrs. May makes a good point, here, don't you think? Do the borrowers need to make up a story of ownership in order to make themselves feel better, or to justify their less-than-moral actions?
Quote #3
That's why my father says it's a good thing they're dying out… just a few, my father says, that's all we need—to keep us. Otherwise, he says, the whole thing gets […] exaggerated. (9.67)
What? Human beings are dying out? Arrietty seriously needs to check her sources. We know this isn't true, but this untruth totally shapes the way Arrietty sees the world—and humans. So that's one way prejudice is perpetuated in this novel—through misinformation.
Quote #4
"Borrowing," he said after a while. "Is that what you call it?"
"What else could you call it?" asked Arrietty.
"I'd call it stealing." (10.9-12)
Would you call what the borrowers do stealing? What's the difference, anyway?
Quote #5
Human beans are for Borrowers—like bread's for butter! (10.19)
Is bread for butter? Can't you put all sorts of different things on it—like peanut butter, cream cheese, jam, or nutella? And, to be fair, you can totally put butter on things that aren't bread, like say, corn on the cob or pancakes. At the end of the day, it doesn't quite seem fair to say that bread is only for butter, or vice versa.
Quote #6
"I've only seen two Borrowers but I have seen hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds—
[…]
"Of human beings."
Arrietty stood very still. She did not look at him. After a while she said: "I don't believe you." (10.31,33-34)
It's hard to hear things that go completely against everything you've ever been taught. Think about the great hubbub that was caused when Charles Darwin proposed the theory of evolution, or the shenanigans that went down when Copernicus was all, dudes, the earth goes around the sun. Hello? In some ways, we might say that humans are all a little bit prejudiced because it's hard to accept change. And Arrietty's no different.
Quote #7
Steer clear of them—that's what I've always been told. No good never really came to no one from any human bean. (14.51)
Whoa, harsh. Sure, this quote puts Pod's prejudice on full display, but it also tells us a little something about how prejudice works. As it turns out, you've got to be carefully taught. Prejudice doesn't come out of nowhere. It's drummed into a person's brain by all the prejudiced people who come before.
Quote #8
A drop of Madeira here, a pair of old stockings there, a handkerchief or so, an odd vest, or an occasional pair of gloves—these, Mrs. Driver thought, were different; these were within her rights. But trinkets out of the drawing room cabinet—that, she told herself grimly, staring at the depleted shelves, was a different story altogether! (16.10)
Is what Mrs. Driver does "a different story altogether"? Let's face it. One way of looking at this business is that Mrs. Driver is nothing but a big ol' hypocrite.
Quote #9
The boy looked down at his pocketless night-shirt. "I'll carry you," he said.
"How?" Asked calmly. "In your hand?"
"Yes," the boy.
"I'd rather die," said Homily. "I'd rather stay right here and be eaten by the rat-catcher from the town hall at Leighton Buzzard." (18.46-49)
Old prejudices die hard. Even after the boy and the borrower family have become friends, Homily still has her reservations about these humans.
Quote #10
"They are nasty little crafty, scampy, scurvy, squeaking little—"
"No, they're not," he put in quickly. (18.2-73)
Let's hear it for the boy for standing up to Mrs. Driver, and proving her prejudices are nothing but dumb.