Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
"Harriet the Spy" by Louise Fitzhugh tells the story of an inquisitive eleven-year-old girl named Harriet Welsch, who aspires to be a famous writer. Living in Manhattan, Harriet adopts the role of a self-styled "spy," meticulously observing and documenting the lives of her neighbors, classmates, and teachers in a notebook. Her observations are candid and often unflattering, which leads to significant conflict when her notebook is discovered by her peers. The fallout from this incident results in anger and betrayal from those she once considered friends, leaving Harriet isolated and struggling with her identity and behavior.
As her beloved nurse and confidante Ole Golly departs to marry, Harriet's emotional state deteriorates, and she becomes increasingly rebellious. However, with support from her parents and teachers, she ultimately finds a way to redeem herself by taking on the editorship of her sixth-grade newspage. This transition allows Harriet to navigate her complex feelings about writing and responsibility. The novel is part of a trilogy and is celebrated for its realistic portrayal of childhood experiences, making Harriet a memorable figure in children's literature. Through its blend of humor and serious themes, "Harriet the Spy" explores the challenges of growing up and the importance of integrity in self-expression.
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Subject Terms
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
First published: 1964; illustrated
Type of work: Domestic realism
Themes: Emotions, friendship, and family
Time of work: The 1960’s
Recommended Ages: 10-13
Locale: New York City
Principal Characters:
Harriet Welsch , a precocious eleven-year-old who wants to be a writerOle Golly , the wise and well-read nurse on whom Harriet relies for friendship and edificationMrs. Welsch , Harriet’s mother, caring yet often preoccupied with social activitiesMr. Welsch , Harriet’s father, a high-pressured television executive, loving but absentminded toward HarrietSport , Harriet’s best friend, gentle and amenableJanie Gibbs , Harriet’s other best friend, enigmatic and intriguing, strangely bent on blowing up the world
The Story
Harriet Welsch is a well-off eleven-year-old who lives in a Brownstone on East Eighty-seventh Street in Manhattan. A tomboy and neighborhood “spy,” Harriet’s single-minded purpose in life is to become a famous writer. To do that, her nurse and confidante Ole Golly advises her, she must record everything that goes on around her. “I want to know everything,” she confides to Ole Golly breathlessly. Not to let one instant pass unobserved, Harriet writes continually in her notebook about the people on whom she spies, including her classmates and teachers. Precocious, bright, and highly inquisitive, Harriet is also rather eccentric in her ways. For example, she is nearly incapable of altering certain habits, such as eating a tomato sandwich for lunch every day, racing straight home from school to a snack of milk and cake, bounding up to her third-floor bedroom to change into the same “spy” clothes that she has worn for years while working (not playing, she says with indignance) at being the neighborhood spy. Included on her “spy” route are an aging divorcee (on whom she spies daringly from inside a dumbwaiter in the woman’s apartment), a recluse who keeps cats, and an immigrant family who operate a local grocery. Harriet also keeps notes on her two close friends, Janie Gibbs, whose mission in life is to blow up the world, and Sport, for whom she feels sorry for lacking a mother and having a “starvingwriter” for a father. Most of Harriet’s recorded observations are unsparingly candid, highly opinionated, and not in the least bit tactful. Harriet’s intentions are nevertheless honorable, as these jottings, as Harriet sees them, will be her groundwork for a great story someday.
The trouble begins when Harriet loses her notebook, only to discover with horror that it has been found, and is being read, by her friends and peers. They react, understandably, with anger and resentment, though Harriet is baffled to know why. Following this catastrophe is a series of revenge tactics employed against Harriet by her classmates. At school they shun her and play pranks on her; after school they form a “Spycatcher’s Club” to devise ways to embarrass her. Worse yet, Janie Gibbs and Sport have also turned against her; Harriet finds herself utterly alone. Although she realizes that “a good spy should not get caught” and confesses, “I am a terrible spy,” Harriet has no intention of quitting either her spying or her journal-keeping. These are, after all, the legitimate business of a writer. Though unremorseful and even pridefully independent, Harriet nevertheless is deeply troubled by her predicament.
Harriet’s loneliness is exacerbated by the sudden departure of Ole Golly, who leaves the Welsches’ employ to marry Mr. Waldenstein, the neighborhood deliveryman. A remarkably literate woman with an impressive memory for literary quotations, Ole Golly, whose face seemed to Harriet chiseled out of granite, is the source of Harriet’s stability. Ole Golly’s departure is necessary to the plausibility of the plot: Deprived of Ole Golly’s wisdom and guidance, Harriet begins to write more and more incessantly, and with increased nastiness, in her journal, ignoring her schoolwork, teachers, and parents. Conscious that a change is taking place in her, she feels mean and begins to act meanly, becoming retaliatory toward her classmates. Her behavior, clearly regressive, becomes rebellious, belligerent, and finally intolerable. Harriet seems headed for a nervous breakdown.
None too soon, Harriet’s parents, with the support of her teachers, scheme to give Harriet the editorship of her sixth-grade newspage. Harriet, heeding the advice that she receives in a letter from Ole Golly, prints a retraction of everything that her classmates read about themselves in her notebook. At the same time, Harriet’s newsflashes, printed now for all to read, are typically sparked with the type of scandal and local gossip that got her into trouble in the first place. Now, however, no one seems to mind; Harriet has won her fight for the integrity of the writer’s prerogative.
Context
Harriet the Spy is the first and perhaps best-known book in Louise Fitzhugh’s trilogy which plots the adventures of Harriet and her friends, including The Long Secret (1965) and Sport (1979). Considered by many to be in the vanguard of contemporary children’s literature for its wry humor and its verisimilitude in dealing with peer relations and peer pressure, the story entertains while it teaches preadolescent readers about the difficulties of growing up. Harriet is an unforgettable character in preadolescent fiction, because, despite her immaturity, she is complex and unpredictable. Although her behavior is clearly reprehensible at times, readers admire her unyielding determination and integrity of self.