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Haley has a complicated relationship with her curly red hair, which marks her as different but also brings her together with Kira, Holly’s mother. By the end of the novel, it comes to symbolize community and memory, especially with Black women like Kira and Haley’s own mother. Haley’s white uncle found Haley’s hair a challenge to manage and relate to while Haley was growing up. Being able to connect with Kira through her hair is a major step in Haley’s life, because it normalizes that aspect of herself and links it to her mother, whom Kira had known before she died. After Amari draws Haley’s hair with electricity superpowers, Haley sees herself with new eyes, realizing that her hair contains elements of both of her parents: its color comes from her Irish father, and its texture comes from her Black mother. The result of their love is striking and, Haley comes to see, beautiful.
Haley’s Hair Quotes in Harbor Me
The Harbor Me quotes below all refer to the symbol of Haley’s Hair. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 37 Quotes
But until I saw Amari’s drawing, I hadn’t really thought about my hair. The power is both my mom and dad running through it, through me. And their moms and dads. And theirs. The a and b of me. The c and d, as Holly said. I smiled. My mother was gone, but she was continuing too. Inside of me. And that was its own superpower.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Haley’s Hair Symbol Timeline in Harbor Me
The timeline below shows where the symbol Haley’s Hair appears in Harbor Me. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 7
...father. He tells her a story about how her father showed him her bright red hair when she was a newborn and began to cry with his desire to be a...
(full context)
Chapter 18
...the car, Kira tells the girls that she needs to budget time to style Haley’s hair. Haley remembers how her uncle had tried to learn how to style her hair without...
(full context)
Chapter 26
As Haley and her uncle drive home from the prison, she remembers Kira braiding her hair while she imagined that Kira was her own mother. She asks her uncle to tell...
(full context)
Chapter 34
...the first time she went to Kira and Holly’s house for Kira to braid her hair. Although she’s nervous, she tells the story of her father’s accident, her mother’s death, and...
(full context)
