The Great Gilly Hopkins

Initially, Gilly’s negative judgments of the people she meets in Thompson Park are largely based on her discriminatory views of those who are different from herself, and she is especially cruel in her views of Black people. She also harshly judges those who are impoverished, even though she herself has grown up in poverty. One key aspect of Gilly’s character arc is the positive shift in how she interacts with and views other people. Instead of looking down on others for their race or social status, she begins to value and love others.

When Gilly first meets Miss Harris and Mr. Randolph, Gilly’s racist attitudes are expressed via internal dialogue. Gilly shrinks back from her new teacher when she first meets her, thinking to herself: “on top of everything else, the teacher was black” (21). No one notices Gilly’s reaction except Miss Harris, whose eyes show “a flash of brightness” (21) for a moment. The descriptive language that the author uses expresses that Miss Harris is hurt by Gilly’s reaction to her, but her reaction is subtle, which also indicates Miss Harris’s ability to remain calm despite others’ mistreatment of her.

Miss Harris treats Gilly with kindness and fairness, but Gilly is frustrated because she is being treated the same as everyone else: no other teacher “melted her into the mass” (55) the way that Miss Harris does. Gilly’s internal dialogue shows that she views her classmates as inferior to herself because they are Black, and she is white. She has a negative thought about a Black classmate’s hair and views her classmates as less intelligent even though they are ahead of her in their classwork when she enters the school.

Gilly’s cruelty toward those who she discriminates is rooted in her deep insecurities about growing up in the foster care system. Gilly’s cruelest action is the poster that she creates to taunt Miss Harris and get a harsh reaction from her. Miss Harris’ reaction to Gilly’s poster shows that Miss Harris has experienced racist discrimination in her life. Miss Harris laments that she has learned to hide her anger about these injustices to get along in life; she tells Gilly that she and Gilly are both angry at the world, but that she has learned to hide her anger, whereas Gilly’s anger is still “on the surface” (59). She hopes that Gilly will find a way to use her anger constructively instead of expressing it by attacking others.

Rather than reprimanding Gilly as Gilly expects her to, Miss Harris advises Gilly to “makes friends” (59) with her anger, and even thanks her for the card as Miss Harris vented her anger, “curs[ing] creatively for twenty minutes” (59) in the teacher’s lounge. Miss Harris takes away from Gilly the power to control her emotions. Gilly is frightened by this vulnerability she feels because Miss Harris has seen through her actions. By the end of the novel, the dynamic between Miss Harris and Gilly has shifted. Gilly treats Miss Harris with the respect that she deserves, writing in a letter that she misses being in her class because her new teachers are not nearly as smart as Miss Harris.

Gilly is shocked when she sees Mr. Randolph for the first time because he is Black and visually impaired. Mr. Randolph needs to be escorted to Maime Trotter’s home for dinner every evening, and when Gilly helps Mr. Randolph walk, she grabs his elbow rather than his hand. Due to her racism, Gilly is not comfortable with touching a Black person. However, when Mr. Randolph almost falls, Gilly catches him, which shows that she is not irredeemable. When Mr. Randolph shows forgiveness toward Gilly for stealing money from him, Gilly touches his hand for the first time “as a kind of thank you” (98). This moment shows that Gilly is overcoming her racist views and seeing Black people as worthy of dignity and respect.

Gilly’s internal dialogue begins to change as she begins to understand herself better and begins to have a stronger sense of self-worth. As she begins to feel loved and accepted by Maime Trotter, William Ernest, and Mr. Randolph, she does not need to attack others to feel better about herself. When Mr. Randolph gives her his favorite poetry book the day before she leaves for Virginia, Maime Trotter says that Mr. Randolph “tore a piece off hisself” (126) and gave it to her. Gilly understands what a meaningful gift this is and notices that the book’s “wrinkled brown leather” (126) resembles Mr. Randolph’s skin. The symbolism of this comparison between the outside of the book and Mr. Randolph’s skin shows that Gilly now sees Mr. Randolph’s skin positively.