Please summarize Harriet the Spy. Remember to use an ANGLE.
For more information on summaries, check out this link: https://english121.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2017/09/04/summarizing/
Please summarize Harriet the Spy. Remember to use an ANGLE.
For more information on summaries, check out this link: https://english121.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2017/09/04/summarizing/
The movie Harriet The Spy is about a girl who wants to become a writer. Harriet keeps a journal with her with her everyday. She writes down anything she sees or she observes in her everyday life. Also she is encouraged by her nanny Golly. Harriet thinks that everything written in her journal will a good practice for her future writing career. Harriet was very close to her nanny Golly. When Harriet’s nanny Golly left, she felt miserable without her nanny. Her parents wondered how Harriet will live without her nanny.
Aktia, revise this post based on what we talk about today!
Thank you, Aktia. i watched it too and it’s true. I love this movie because it reminds me Nathalie Wambui writing background. She is a kenian writer. She is ten years old and she had written many books. At a conference she was giving some details about how she started to write. She was born with a heart problem. At five years old, she was hospitalized and her doctor asked her to write about her everyday life. After she left the hospital, she can not stop writing anymore.
Wow! What a fascinating life story, I hope I get a chance to read her work.
Hi Pende! I am from the English Composition online class. I must admit that I am trilled with Nathalie’s life story. Even that she was going thru a very tough time in her life, she never stoped writing. That’s just amazing. Thank you very much for sharing that. I just love to hear motivational stories.
Regards,
Marija
”Harriet The Spy” is movie about a little girl that dreams to be a writer and she constantly writes about everything she sees because her desire is to know everything. In this narrative, Harriet dream’s of writing is poorly understood by her parents but encourage by her nanny, which later on she quits her job leaving Harriet destroyed because she’s now on her own. The nanny was always confident that she taught Harriet well enough for her to solve her own problems and persuade her dreams. This becomes very difficult for Harriet because her notes in her notebook are very honest about people without the purpose of being share but it becomes public when the mean girl at school reads everything she wrote in her notebook out loud in front of the people that she wrote about. At the end of the movie, Harriet is able to apologize and own to her words and get her friends back and most important she now becomes the writer of the school’s newspaper so she can do what she is most passionate about and other people can read it and enjoy it.
In the movie Harriet the spy its shows a girl that’s in 6th grade who’s obsessed with writing and wants to be a spy . also she has a journal that writes down everything she sees around her. but the things she writes down its not to been seen so after she the girl from her class exposed her then her friends didn’t become her friends and then her babysitter golly came back to her and gave her advice to say sorry after her life went as a mess because her parents took her notebook then after she did that her life became back to normal and she became the newspaper write in her school which was her dream.
HI Anabel– what would you say is the angle here? Is it that she’s obsessed with writing? that she wants to be a spy? I’d pick one and flesh that idea out using examples and analysis.
The movie Harriet The Spy explores curiosity of children through Harriet and sometimes that can get them in trouble. Harriet’s nanny Golly encourages Harriet to write about everything in her book on a daily basis. Of course, this book was personal to Harriet and when her classmates read it without her permission, there were mean comments about them. Harriet even wrote mean comments about her best friends which weren’t kind at all. Curiosity gets the best of us and we start doing things that might be hurtful to others or ourselves. For instance, her comments about her classmates backfired because she was getting bullied. In addition, we learn that it’s normal to make mistakes, however, one must apologize and fix the mistakes. Harriet learns this throughout the movie by facing the consequences of her rude remarks. This movie teaches young children that rude remarks can hurt people’s feelings and it can result in losing friendships. Essentially, one must learn that although its normal to make mistakes, mistakes have to be fixed.
In the movie “Harriet the Spy” was about a little girl who wanted to be a journalist or a writer. Her nanny always was in support of her following her dream in becoming a writer unlike her parents. She become someone who saw stuff and jotted them down in her notebook that her nanny convinced her in getting. She went through a lot when her parents took her nanny away and also when her notebook got into the wrong hands. Which destroyed her friendship with so many people because she had made some rude remarks.
There were lots of bullying in the film but the movie was very interesting on how Harriet the spy was spying on her friends in school when it gets to the wrong hands the revenge was harsh. At the end of it all Golly told her that she had to apologize to each and everyone she had wrote something about in the book. Harriet became the school editor of the class newspaper. She apologized and they all became friends again.
You provide a great angle here Israel. Your focus is on Harriet’s quest to become a journalist. You support this angle with examples from the film. I’m not sure how the bullying sentence is related to her quest to become a journalist– maybe an analytical sentence could clarify this? Remember, a summary doesn’t have to tell us EVERYTHING about a text or a film, it has to tell us about a text using an angle– if you’re angle is about her wanting to become a journalist, then focus on that.
Great angle here Rebeca, you emphasize curiosity and yet still manage to tell us important facts about the film like her quest to write everything down and the way it led to her being bullied. Your “this sentence…” starts to shift focus a bit, but I wonder if adding a sentence that explains the connection between losing friendships and curiosity would clarify.
DW
The movie “Harriet the spy” was about a little girl who was curious about all the things in life that she observes. Harriet feels that all memories should be written down weather her memories or thoughts hurt people or not. Her curiosity stems from all that her nanny has taught her. In order to be a good spy you cant miss a thought because if you miss a thought you miss the clue. In my opinion, Harriet’s character was pretty mean, she didn’t know how to filter her thoughts the right way. Nore did her parents pay her enough attention. All her outrage was due to her parents wealth and lack of attention. If they would pay her more attention to what she likes and whats better for her she would not have to deal all her wrongs. She lost all her friends and hurt the ones dear to her due to her spy like ways.
Thanks Porshe! It’s interesting that you focus on her parents not paying attention to her. In fact, all of your sentences here are beginnings of summaries because they present a really great angle to summarize the film. I’d pick ONE of these sentences and offer examples and analysis. For instance, where in the film do the parents not pay attention? What is the significance of that scene?
Harriet the Spy is a 1996 American family comedy drama film from Louise Fitzhugh. It relates a story of a young motivated girl who dreams to become a writer. She is encouraged by her nanny Golly while her parents deter her anyway from writing. So her only literacy sponsor is Golly who asks her to write about what she sees, observes around her. Promptly she writes about her classmates. Unfortunately, Golly left her to get married. Then the young write becomes sad for loosing Golly. She also lost her notebook in school that her classmates found it and read. Knowing the content in her notebook, they get upset about writing about them, then their friendship breakdown. Harriet becomes deeply depressed. Her parents sent her the psychology therapist, which asked them to tell Golly to write Harriet a letter. Following so, Harriet life gets better until she is elected to be her class editor and she repairs once her relationship with her mates. This story tells us that MOTIVATION IS EQUAL TO SUCCESS. Since we are living in society, we are coping social difficulties, but if we have strong ambition, or motivation, we will get through.
Thanks Pende. I believe your second sentence holds your angle/interest– her dreams to become a writer. Keep practicing those possessives (Harriet’s life…)
DW
Harriet the Spy is about a girl who learns the value and effects of her writing. Harriet, who was influenced by her nanny Golly, loved writing everything down in her private notebook. It was a way for her to remember every detail of her life. After a fun day with her friends, Harriet misplaces her notebook. She was devastated to find that her notebook was in the hands of Marion, a popular girl in her class whom she disliked. Marion reads her private thoughts aloud in front of her classmates, even the ones Harriet had written about her dearest friends. She had written that one of her friends were very poor and couldn’t afford bread to calling another a total nutcase. Harriet’s brutally honest comments came across very harsh and mean, which led to the separation of her friendships. Harriet then learns how her writing affects the people around her and how much value each word she writes has. After learning from her mistakes and realizing the power of words, she writes a paper for her class’s newspaper. She justifies and corrects all the mistakes that she had previously written in her notebook, and makes things right. In the end, her writing made her classmates and friends feel better. Although her friendships grew apart, Harriet was able to fix it by understanding the value of her writing. Taking a negatively affected situation to a new level by seeing the bright side and spreading positivity through her writing.
Excellent work here Fathima. You’re right. This film is about the “value” of writing. It’s interesting to think about the way she can fix the bad things that happen because of her writing with more writing. It reminds me of Mean Girls.
The movie “Harriet The Spy” is about a little girl who loves to write. Harriet was inspired by nanny Golly. She learns about the benefits and effects of her writing. In her private notebook, Harriet feels that everything should be written down because she could remember all the memories of her life. Harriet’s parents did not give enough time to her and they did not pay attention as much as Harriet wanted from them. When Harriet loses her notebook, she fears that someone might read her private thoughts. Harriet’s classmate Marion who is a popular girl in her class finds the notebook and reads everything that Harriet has written down in life. That was very embarrassing moment for Harriet because she lost all her friends and she hurt the dear ones that was always with Harriet. She disliked Marion the most.
Hi Aktia, thanks for sharing. You have several ideas here that are important. I would like to know more about how Harriet was inspired by her nanny, Golly. I’d also like to know about where you found Harriet wanted more attention from her parents and why this is significant.
DW
Harriet The Spy
I find the movie about “Harriet The Spy” completely thrilling and educational. The young Harriet despite being a child, demonstrated such a powerful character in mind and action. While majority of her peers are riddled with uncertainty at home and away, Harriet’s actualized her strength in writing in school through the blog. Even though her strength was rewarded at the end of the movie, Harriet initially considered herself a loser and wanted to quit. At the beginning Harriet regretted neglecting her friend and apologized. However, she gained the momentum and went on to break a record on spy work. According to Harriet, she wanted to be a writer and therefore she knew she had to work extra hard to get results. In doing so Harriet took up challenging roles of documenting every event on her note book for the blog. And instead of using convectional blogging style to keep up with daily general stories at school, Harriet went big into spy work. Harriet posted mind boggling comments that most of her peers did not admit. For example, the blog about Skander Hill character on the movie production industry, and the nanny with the friend were considered made up stories by majority of her competitors. In conclusion, I consider this movie highly educational for many interested in pursuing tough goals in life. It also teaches determination and hardwork irrespective of age. However, I also acknowledge that some of the contents were not child friendly.
Hi Erick, thanks for this summary, but I’m not sure I follow– Harriet doesn’t have a blog? I wonder if you watched the wrong version of the movie? I think you might’ve watched a contemporary version. The original Harriet the Spy can be found on our blackboard page. In any case, this is a strong analysis of power and writing. It convinced me to give the newer version of the film a try!