Who is ole golly

Not mentioned in the book description is Ole Golly, but she figures throughout the story. In the midst of Harriet and Sport's conversation in chapter one, we read "Harriet! Get up out of that mud! It is Ole Golly, her nurse. In chapter five, Harriet spies on Ole Golly when she goes out to be with her boyfriend, Mr. She hears him tell Ole Golly that she is attractive, who is embarrassed by the compliment and changes the subject. She blushes.

The text there is location :. The crimson zoomed up Ole Golly's face again, making her look exactly like a hawk-nosed Indian. In the space of a few words, we see stereotypical depictions of Native people: the hawk nose, the red skin, and the use of "Big Chief" to describe someone with authority.

When I call attention to this kind of content in popular or classic books, someone invariably replies that there's a lot in the book that is important, and that those things are more important than the problematic Native content. Those who say that are pretty much saying that the impact of this derogatory content on a Native reader doesn't count as much as the others who will, in some way, be affirmed by the rest of the story.

But I hear that a lot. Over and over, Native kids are expected to push through that kind of content, for the sake of the other kids. That's deeply troubling! It is spoken as if there is only one book in the entire world that can do what Harriet the Spy does. In subsequent drafts, Louise drew on her own experience with nannies and nurses to add more where Charlotte pushed.

She is presumably not a convict on the run, since even the neglectful Welsches would have asked for some references. For all the reader knew, she appeared out of the blue, like Mary Poppins to help the Bankses, or Hagrid to invite Harry Potter to Hogwarts.

Harriet, recognizing the consoling effect they have upon her nurse as she delivers them, listens attentively, absorbing their primary lesson, which is read, read, read.

When Ole Golly decides to accept a marriage proposal, Harriet is angry at her nurse for abandoning her. At eleven, she has a healthy ego, common in young geniuses who otherwise might not make it out of childhood alive—either smothered by adoration, crushed by rejection, or left to flounder in indifference coincidentally, this is also the unhappy fate of many thwarted women artists.

Confidence was a quality Louise herself often struggled to embrace, and—like the good witch she is—Ole Golly inculcated confidence early on in the child. Welsch is in the television industry. While on her spy route, Harriet confronts the iniquities associated with class distinctions; in her home, her father rails against the iniquities associated with artists who must by necessity bow to mammon.

He seems to have reconciled the compromises he has made in his own life, but he still has to deal with plenty of finks who think only of money and show no discernment or taste.

In contrast to Mr. Waldenstein, has had a documented spiritual crisis. When profits come to mean nothing to him, he quits his job as a jeweler and seeks a more meaningful life. In her illustration of Mr. Waldenstein, Louise brings back the face of the man whom she first saw on shipboard in , and whose portrait she had drawn many times. Here she has drawn him as a sympathetic companion.

It is typical of Louise to have given him a profession that requires superb craftsmanship and an eye for beauty. Waldenstein, regretting nothing, builds his life over from the bottom, serenely and optimistically. For Harriet, Yorkville is like a small town. The Dei Santis themselves are merchants who are trying to make their family enterprise succeed, but they are constantly stymied by obstacles, including missing merchandise, a broken-down delivery truck, and the unpredictable work ethic of their children.

Down the street 87th between York and East End and at the other end of the financial scale lives the wealthy Mrs. She listens as Mrs. Her secret is to stay in bed, surrounded by boxes of chocolates and magazines, until something better reveals itself. Robinson, whose art collecting Louise regards in the same spoofing spirit she brought to connoisseurs of modern poetry in Suzuki Beane.

Everyone is talking about strong female characters today, but in , it was much harder to find a book about a kickass young girl. Harriet is determined to be a spy when she grows up, because she adores Mata Hari who, fun fact, was also a courtesan.

She even chooses a middle initial for herself, because she likes the sound of Harriet M. Welsch better than plain old Harriet Welsch. Heard of that little thing called the WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign? Well, Harriet the Spy falls into the DiverseBooks category.

Not only was Fitzhugh a lesbian who was out to her friends, but the book itself looks at a wide range of people with different backgrounds and circumstances. Ole Golly also gets engaged to an ex-millionaire who decided to abandon his business and is now a delivery boy. But — and this is the really important bit — she tries to.

By watching, listening, and thinking, Harriet confronts her own privilege over and over again. She has a toolbelt and prefers jeans to dresses. She is adventurous and scrappy. On her spy route, she watches both men and women and finds them equally fascinating. When the doctor confines her to bed for the rest of her life, however, she is suddenly averse to the idea, and becomes an active, engaged woman.

A man whom Harriet spies on during her spy route. He has 26 cats before the Health Department comes to take them all away, but after this, he manages to acquire a little kitten.

He also crafts birdcages for a living. A couple whom Harriet spies on during her spy route. They sit in silence and say not a word to each other unless company is visiting, in which case they show them around the house and pretend they have a "perfect" life. One of the Dei Santi children, who is eighteen years old and trying to be independent. He decides he does not want to work the grocery business and gets a job as a salesman.

Janie's mother, who wants Janie to be more ladylike. She suggests that Janie and Harriet attend dancing school. Sport's father, who is an aspiring writer and unfortunately has a lot of trouble publishing his work and making money for him and Sport to live on. Sport does most of the household work for them, because his father will not do it.

The Dei Santi's delivery boy, who is friends with Mr. He always eats a ton at the grocery store, and for a time, the Dei Santis fire him because of it. He was once a wealthy jewelry business owner with a wife and son, but after realizing he was unhappy, he renounced all his material wealth and started over. Carrie Andrews' father, who is the Welschs' doctor. He tells Mrs. Welsch that there is nothing wrong with Harriet, but confesses that Carrie told him something about a notebook, and that might be the problem.

The psychiatrist who Harriet visits with her mother. He also says there is nothing wrong with Harriet, but recommends that she be given a project to keep her mind occupied.