The Castle in the Attic

There’s a big difference between loving people and needing them. William has no idea how to live without depending on Mrs. Phillips; he learns that loving someone means respecting their wishes and not using them for his own purposes.

William initially sees Mrs. Phillips as the woman who lives in his house and takes care of him. She’s helped raise him since infancy, spending more time with him than his busy parents. Mrs. Phillips’s decision to return to her hometown in England is a hard one to make. She’ll miss the boy terribly, but she’s an adult who understands that people must pay prices, many of them emotional, if they’re to move forward in life. William, on the other hand, has no concept of living without her, and her decision throws him into a panic.

For William, the solution is obvious: He refuses to accept that she’s leaving, and he vows to stop it. As much as he loves her, William’s decision to kidnap her fails to account for her own needs or how much his scheme will hurt her. He simply cannot see any of that until he kidnaps her. When he does, she refuses to speak to him, and Sir Simon explains that, trapped in the toy