37 pages • 1 hour read
Louise FitzhughHarriet the Spy
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1964A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Book 1, Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 1, Chapter 4 Summary
The next day, Harriet goes on her spy rounds to visit a couple named Robinson. They never speak to each other but spend all their time buying things for their home, which they love to show off. As Harriet watches them, she thinks, “They never worked, and what was worse, they never even read anything. They bought things and brought them home and then they had people in to look at them” (66).
After the Robinsons, Harriet goes to watch Harrison Withers. Peering down through a skylight, she can see him making birdcages. The work seems to make him very happy. Harriet counts the cats inside his apartment and learns there are 26 of them. He feeds them kidneys while he eats yogurt.
Harriet’s next stop is to visit Janie, who isn’t in a good mood because her parents are upset about her many flammable chemical experiments. Janie’s mother is threatening to send her to dance school to turn her into a proper young lady. Apparently, Harriet’s mother is planning the same thing. Both girls vow that they will never be forced to dance.
Book 1, Chapter 5 Summary
That night, Harriet tells her parents that she will never go to dancing school. She makes such a fuss that they send her to her room. Ole Golly points out that female spies like Mata Hari all knew how to dance. Harriet realizes that this might be a useful skill, so she agrees to go. When she breaks the news to Janie at school the next day, she learns that Janie gave in, too.
After school, Harriet doesn’t go on her usual spy rounds because it is Ole Golly’s evening off. Harriet suspects her nanny will be meeting her boyfriend, so she goes outside to spy on whoever comes to the door. She is surprised to see a heavy man with a round head, “darkish skin,” and a “face [that forms] a pleasant, round, cheerful image” (94) arrive riding a delivery bicycle. Harriet watches as Ole Golly goes out to meet the man, whose name is Waldenstein. He suggests that they go to a German restaurant for dinner and then to a movie. Harriet is very surprised to see Ole Golly climb on the back of the delivery bike while Waldenstein pedals them away.
When Ole Golly returns, Harriet quizzes her on how she liked her evening. Harriet already knows that Ole Golly doesn’t like bratwurst and rarely goes to the movies, yet the nanny says that she had a wonderful time. This remark causes Harriet to ponder how strangely people behave when they are in love.
Book 1, Chapter 6 Summary
he following night, Harriet’s parents have plans to attend a fancy party, leaving Ole Golly and Harriet alone for the evening. Much to her surprise, Harriet sees Ole Golly invite Waldenstein into the house for dinner. Although she is initially suspicious, Harriet finds that she likes the man. After they eat, he suggests the three of them go to a movie.
At first, Ole Golly worries about leaving her post, but Waldenstein insists that no harm will come to Harriet. They all go off on the delivery bike, with Harriet tucked inside the cargo bin on the back. After seeing a movie about Greek gods, which Harriet enjoys very much, they go for sodas.
By the time they arrive back home, it’s almost midnight, and Harriet’s parents are there. Mrs. Welsch is furious that Ole Golly left the house with her daughter, and she wants to fire the nanny immediately. Waldenstein rushes to explain that Harriet is safe, and he simply invited her along to celebrate his engagement to Ole Golly. The nanny intends to leave the family’s service. Ole Golly says that Harriet is old enough not to need a nanny any longer.
The following day, Ole Golly packs and gets ready to leave. Harriet is very upset at losing her, but Ole Golly says, “Tears won’t bring me back. Remember that. Tears never bring anything back. Life is a struggle and a good spy gets in there and fights. Remember that. No nonsense” (134). Ole Golly promises to look up Harriet one day to see what she’s made of her life. That night, Harriet writes in her notebook that while the external facts of her life and routines haven’t changed, she feels a hole inside herself that wasn’t there before.
Book 1, Chapters 4-6 Analysis
This segment begins with Harriet expanding her character descriptions as she spies on the Robinsons and old Harrison Withers. As is apparent from her journal entries, people perplex her. The disjunction between Observation and Understanding is amplified when Harriet speculates about the Robinsons without reaching any conclusions. Similarly, she doesn’t grasp why Mr. Withers keeps so many cats. In both cases, she doesn’t explore motivation while trying to understand character. She offers judgments about the behavior she perceives as odd in others from her own limited perspective, and these judgments lack empathy.
The importance of Ole Golly’s role in Harriet’s life is illustrated in their conversation about dancing school. When Harriet adamantly refuses to go, Ole Golly persuades her to comply by pointing out that spies need to know how to dance. The nanny is far more adept at knowing and shaping Harriet than her own parents are because Old Golly understands her motivations—particularly those that are tied to her secret spy notebook—due to her consistent engagement with Harriet.
Harriet’s comfortable status quo is shattered when Mr. Waldenstein enters the picture. When Harriet blithely begins spying on Ole Golly and her suitor, she doesn’t recognize the potential disruption that he represents. The fact that Ole Golly enjoys a meal and a movie with him runs contrary to her usual tastes. Harriet shrugs off this fact as one of the irrational things that people do when they’re in love. Her reaction shows that she attempts to take her beloved nanny’s emotions into account—even if they are inexplicable to Harriet—suggesting an early step in her journey toward Developing Empathy.
The theme of the Power of Words is briefly introduced at the end of this segment when Ole Golly encourages Harriet to contact her in later years to show what she’s made of her life. After learning of her beloved nanny’s imminent departure, Harriet deviates from her habit of using the notebook to record for spying. Instead, she writes about her feelings of loss. That open question of who Harriet will become and how words will shape her becomes a dominant theme as Book 2 begins to explore her unconstructive way of dealing with the world on her own.
