Harris Sinclair Character Analysis in We Were Liars

The patriarch of the Sinclair family, Harris and his late wife, Tipper, have amassed a considerable fortune. They use their wealth to buy a private island that they call Beechwood, where they build separate houses there for their three daughters—Penny, Carrie, and Bess—and their children. This allows them all to spend each summer together on the island, and as a result, the family is close-knit and closed off to outsiders. This becomes clear one summer when Carrie arrives on the island with her new boyfriend, Ed, and his nephew, Gat, both of whom are of South Asian descent. While Harris is superficially welcoming to the men, he subtly attempts to ensure that they do not really become part of the family. In addition, Harris has promised each of his daughters a large inheritance and has allowed them to become dependent on his money—none of them is financially self-sufficient. When Tipper dies, the family begins to unravel as the sisters openly fight over her possessions and try to curry Harris’s favor in the hopes of receiving a larger share of the inheritance. In the midst of this family unrest, his three oldest grandchildren and their friend decide to burn down the main house on the island, killing Johnny, Mirren, and Gat in the process. While their act of rebellion was designed to strip Harris of his power over the rest of the family, it is questionable as to whether it worked at all. He has New Clairmont built on the ashes of the old house, and the new building is bereft of the memories and home comforts of the original. In addition, Harris begins to lose his hold over much of the family, anyway, due to the onset of dementia.

Harris Sinclair Quotes in We Were Liars

The We Were Liars quotes below are all either spoken by Harris Sinclair or refer to Harris Sinclair. 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:

“Watch yourself, young man,” said Granddad, sharp and sudden.

“Pardon me?”

“Your head. You could get hurt.”

“You’re right,” said Gat. “You’re right, I could get hurt.”

Related Characters: Harris Sinclair (speaker), Gatwick “Gat” Patil (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman

Page Number and Citation: 27

Explanation and Analysis:

Do you understand, Cady? Silence is a protective coating over pain.

Related Characters: Penny Sinclair Eastman (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman, Tipper Sinclair, Harris Sinclair

Page Number and Citation: 32

Explanation and Analysis:

“Cadence was the first, and it didn’t matter that she was a girl. I would give her everything. Just like a grandson. I carried her in my arms and danced. She was the future of our family.”

Related Characters: Harris Sinclair (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman

Page Number and Citation: 57

Explanation and Analysis:

“I started over with this house,” he says simply. “That old life is gone.”

Related Characters: Harris Sinclair (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman

Related Symbols: Clairmont

Page Number and Citation: 98

Explanation and Analysis:

Now, at the breakfast table, watching him eat my toast, “Don’t take no for an answer” seemed like the attitude of a privileged guy who didn’t care who got hurt, so long as his wife had the cute statues she wanted to display in her summerhouses.

Related Characters: Cadence “Cady” Eastman (speaker), Harris Sinclair

Page Number and Citation: 123

Explanation and Analysis:

“He knows he’s not supposed to be that guy. He’s a Democrat, he voted for Obama—but that doesn’t mean he’s comfortable having people of color in his beautiful family.”

Related Characters: Gatwick “Gat” Patil (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman, Harris Sinclair

Page Number and Citation: 182

Explanation and Analysis:

“This is the United States of America,” he said. “You don’t seem to understand that, Penny, so let me explain. In America, here is how we operate: We work for what we want, and we get ahead. We never take no for an answer, and we deserve the rewards of our perseverance.”

Related Characters: Harris Sinclair (speaker), Penny Sinclair Eastman

Page Number and Citation: 194

Explanation and Analysis:

Harris Sinclair Character Timeline in We Were Liars

The timeline below shows where the character Harris Sinclair appears in We Were Liars. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...them. Then they pack up and go to Beechwood, the private island that Penny’s father, Harris, owns, to forget about the whole thing. Harris Sinclair bought the island for his family:... (full context)

...to his knees and tells her he loves her. Cady kisses him. At that moment, Harris Sinclair walks into the attic, interrupting the private and romantic moment between the two teens. (full context)

When Harris enters the attic, Gat jumps up awkwardly, as all three of them know what Cady’s... (full context)

Harris reminisces with Cady about taking her to her first baseball game when she is four... (full context)

...should never remind people of a loss, and that they all must be strong for Harris. Cady and the rest of the family manage to erase Tipper from their lives, just... (full context)

...gasoline for the motorboats, Johnny running down the stairs from Clairmont to a boathouse, and Harris holding on to a tree while watching a bonfire. She had nothing but snippets, and... (full context)

...trip is already paid for, and Penny will not let her back out of it. Harris comes to Burlington to stay for a few days, and Cady is surprised to see... (full context)

After Harris leaves Burlington, Penny cancels the Australia trip and decides to let Cady go to Beechwood... (full context)

...cold, modern building made of glass and iron with a Japanese garden on the side. Harris spent two summers building the house, which they call “New Clairmont.” Cady is struck by... (full context)

...her home. When Penny and Cady finally get into Windemere, their house on the island, Harris and Bess are waiting for them. Harris welcomes Cady back to the island, but he... (full context)

...is expected—no excuses—for dinner at Clairmont with a smile on her face for her grandfather, Harris. Cady ignores her mother and decides to write down all her memories from summer fifteen,... (full context)

...and grandfather. She asks where Fatima and Prince Phillip—two of the golden retrievers—have gone, and Harris tells her that they died a while back. Sad, Cady asks if the dogs suffered,... (full context)

...ghosts, angels, and psychics piled in a corner. When Cady mentions all the missing items, Harris tells her that their old life is gone, and he has started over. (full context)

Harris asks Cady where “the young man” is, and she thinks he is referring to Johnny,... (full context)

...that they are redecorating, and Mirren tells Cady that Bess hates the house—she wishes that Harris would remodel it and feels like the least loved daughter because her house has been... (full context)

...dinner on the Clairmont lawn. She and Gat are sitting next to each other, and Harris began to talk about renovating his house in Boston, and his daughters began arguing about... (full context)

...that Taft has a motto, just like their grandfather does, and they all talk about Harris’s various mottos: “don’t take no for an answer,” “no one likes a waffler,” and “never... (full context)

Gat continues, telling Cady that to Harris, Gat is like Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights: he is the “gypsy boy” in the novel... (full context)

Cady has learned a lot about her family: Harris keeps confusing her with Mirren, the younger cousins are kleptomaniacs, the aunts argue over the... (full context)

...has a recovered memory from summer fifteen—she asks about a goose statue in Clairmont, and Harris tells her about how he and Tipper went to China and brought back many beautiful... (full context)

...okay when they are not. She agrees and hands him the fudge she bought with Harris. (full context)

Cady tells Mirren about her memory, and how she remembers arguing with Harris about ivory statues, and how the aunts are fighting over the estate. She then asks... (full context)

...people to feel sorry for her. Yet Cady has no idea how lucky she is: Harris sent her to Europe for eight weeks. Cady is surprised because she doesn’t realize that... (full context)

Cady wonders why Harris would fund such a trip, and why he wouldn’t send Penny along as well. She... (full context)

...beach. She says that Cady should spend more time with the younger cousins and with Harris, because he won’t be around forever. She also scolds her for having a sunburn. (full context)

...that the snippets of memory that she has had all along—Mirren holding a gas can, Harris standing by a tree watching a bonfire—they are from that night, but she hadn’t put... (full context)

Cady remembers Penny asking her to write a sympathy card to Harris to remind him that she cares about him. Cady felt that this was false—she cared... (full context)

After Tipper’s death, the sisters took turns supporting Harris, but instead of cooperating as they had in the past, they are constantly fighting. Tipper... (full context)

...twins’ birthdays at Clairmont, Cady and Gat sat next to one another at the table. Harris came over, wedged himself between them, and began to ask the Liars whether they thought... (full context)

The conversation helped Cady recognize how much the aunts needed Harris’s money. As she looked around the table, she thought about how Carrie doesn’t have any... (full context)

Later that summer, when the family was gathered for cocktail hour at Clairmont, Harris casually commented that according to Bess, Penny and Cady were probably very lonely in Windemere... (full context)

...judgement on Penny and her sisters. She demanded that Cady return to Clairmont to tell Harris that she wanted to live in Windemere, but Cady refused. She told Penny to tell... (full context)

Cady and Gat were tossing around tennis balls one evening, when Gat mentioned that Harris never called him by his name—he only calls him “young man.” When Cady wondered why... (full context)

...the others that she did all of the funeral arrangements for Tipper and stayed with Harris while he mourned her death, so she should be compensated in some way for her... (full context)

The sisters continued arguing: Carrie reminded them all that Harris called her all the time to talk, and that she also came to visit him... (full context)

A few days later, Harris talked to Johnny privately to ask him a favor. He wanted Gat to stop coming... (full context)

...That night, the Liars took a few prized possessions from the houses—including the ivory goose Harris purchased in China for Tipper—and took them to the dock and smashed them to bits.... (full context)

The following day, the Liars were in the garden of Red Gate and could hear Harris and his daughters arguing at Clairmont. Penny was drunkenly complaining about how she had to... (full context)

...with Will, Penny went to see a friend of hers on Martha’s Vineyard, and even Harris left the island. The Liars stayed behind and planned the fire. They convinced Bess to... (full context)

...they are together now, which is what they wanted in the first place. And now Harris doesn’t have the same power he did in the past. (full context)

...own migraines and Mirren’s constant illness—and have gotten what they wanted. But Mirren argues that Harris is now powerless because of the slow onset of dementia, and Gat notes that New... (full context)

...describes dreaming of someone hacking away at her head with an axe: sometimes it is Harris, sometimes it is Gat, and sometimes it is Cady herself. She admits that sometimes she... (full context)

...on Martha’s Vineyard, under blue sheets with an IV in her arm. Her mother and Harris were there, with fudge from Edgartown, and Cady was touched that Harris remembered that she... (full context)

The true story of the Sinclair family never made it to the newspapers, but Harris Sinclair knows it. The truth is that on a July evening two summers earlier, Gatwick... (full context)

Harris Sinclair declined formal investigation of the fire, and the family held funerals for Gat, Mirren,... (full context)

...since that was their exit. She decided that she would use the back door near Harris’s study, which led to the staff building next door. She started her fire and watched... (full context)

...who have lost their children, for the younger kids who have lost their siblings, for Harris who has lost his house and grandchildren, and for the dogs, who were innocent victims.... (full context)

Harris takes Cady to Edgartown, where he buys her a book of fairy tales at the... (full context)

Harris Sinclair Character Analysis

Harris Sinclair Quotes in We Were Liars

Part 1: Welcome Quotes

Part 2: Vermont Quotes

Part 3: Summer Seventeen Quotes

Part 4: Look, a Fire Quotes

Harris Sinclair Character Timeline in We Were Liars