Harriet the Spy Literary Elements

Children's Fiction

New York's Upper East Side, late 60s to early 70s

Third person narrator, limited perspective, telling the story from Harriet's point of view

The tone of the book is predominantly tense, as all of the characters seem to be angry at each other for most of the book.

Harriet is the protagonist, and the kids in her class become the antagonists after they discover her journal.

When the rest of the class discover what Harriet has written about them, there is conflict between Harriet and all her classmates. The worst of this is between Harriet and her two best friends, Sport and Janie, who are most hurt by what she has written about them.

Harriet's diary is discovered and this leads to her being ostracized by the rest of the class.

At the end of Chapter 9, Harriet has a nightmare that she calls the worst dream of her life. She predicts that something terrible is about to happen, because every time she has a bad dream, something goes wrong. This foreshadows the subsequent loss of her journal and her classmates turning on her.

Harriet admits that some of the things she has written are mean but this is an understatement because most of what she wrote was downright cruel.

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See ClassicNote section on Imagery.

Harriet feels horrible when people are saying unkind things to her, but does not understand why they are upset over her journal.

There is a parallel between the things that she wrote about people that has made them angry and upset and what they then write about her in the school newspaper.

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