Race affects the characters relationships to one another, specifically Harriet and her siblings’ relationship to Thomas Jefferson. Race, of course, also plays an important role in the novel. Harriet struggles with both the notion that Thomas Jefferson is her father, as well as the idea of turning her back of the black community she grew up with to take her freedom as a white woman. Themes: The central theme of this novel is identity. But, when Jefferson’s grandson-in-law tries to rape her, Harriet realizes that her future at Monticello is not as secure as her childhood has been and she struggles to take steps to secure her freedom by learning how to pass into the white world. Harriet’s mother had secured her children’s freedom from Jefferson, but Harriet is reluctant to accept her freedom partially because she loves Jefferson and partially because she does not consider herself a slave, but a servant to Master Jefferson. She is the daughter of Sally Hemings and supposedly the daughter of her master Thomas Jefferson (something we now know to be true). Summary: Harriet Hemings loves her home at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. But time has shown us we didn't need that unjust wolf after all.Ĭan't let today's wolves stop us from envisioning a better future and fighting for it in whatever ways we can. Indeed, the ironic "wolf" situation seemed so impossible to people back then. The pain comes across well, but the tough, complex ironies of it all are where the story still gets me.Īnd it ultimately gives me hope. While the story sometimes feels like a drawn-out walk to the inevitable, with characters repeating the same sentiments over again, the ironies make the read worth it. She can be pretty childish and melodramatic, with tears coming to her eyes so frequently that it becomes tiring. While I still think it's a fairly rich work of historical fiction, I now recognize that I don't have much reason to like the heroine. I'll admit my youth and the newness of it all for me back then had me more entranced (so to speak) than I was this time. It was quite the experience for me, getting me to chew on layered concepts that were still new to me at the time, such as the practice of some light-skinned people of color passing for white. I was thirteen or so the first time I read this YA novel. Now the impending choice of whether or not to leave her home forever to live life as a free woman is breaking Harriet's heart in Wolf by the Ears by author Ann Rinaldi. Although Harriet calls Jefferson "Master," she's never felt the reality of her enslavement, and rumor has it that she and her siblings are the master's mulatto children. Harriet Hemings loves her life at Monticello, where the former president Thomas Jefferson is head of the plantation.
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