[HPforGrownups] Secrets (Long)

[Denise]

No: HPFGUIDX 958

Comments?

Peg

How about applause?  I now see exactly why the others are going off about your books.  That was one of the best posts I have read, and explains the series very perfectly.  I am going to save this one!

:)
Dee

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Peg Kerr 
  To: HPforGrownups 
  Sent: Monday, September 04, 2000 10:19 AM
  Subject: [HPforGrownups] Secrets (Long)



       
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  Another long-winded essay-post.

  The Harry Potter books are, when you boil them down to their essence,
  the unfolding of a
  mystery, and what that mystery means to our main character. The seminal
  scene which sets  the
  series in motion is that fatal night when James and Lily were killed
  and, paradoxically,  Harry
  thwarted Voldemort. And the central engine of the series is our drive to
  find out,  slowly, book by book, what happened that night? What was that
  all about? How and why?  As we learn more, we, along with Harry,
  discover other mysteries and secrets. Who is Sirius, and what is his
  role in all this? What about Peter Pettigrew? Or Snape? As Harry
  understands more and more (and we do, too, as his audience), Harry comes
  to understand  himself and his relation to others more clearly.  When he
  understands all in the 7th book, he  will be fully an adult.

  Speaking metaphorically, discovering the truth is, for Harry, in a way,
  the drawing of a map depicting his personal world and his relationship
  to it. As  he gets more information, the map becomes more accurate
  until, presumably, in the 7th book, the map will be close enough to the
  truth to carry him into adulthood. Put another way, as  Harry slowly
  pierces the layer of mystery and secrets surrounding himself, it's as if
  he is chiseling away at the marble surrounding the statue of himself
  buried in a stone. When all the  veils are brushed away, he will see
  himself, and his relation to the world, the way he truly is.

  Now let's look at secrets, as handled by Our Team vs. the Other Team.

  Dumbledore, Harry's guide, seems to be teaching him that secrets are
  best kept until they are
  "ripe," but they must told when the time is right. Significantly, they
  must be told by the person
  who the secret belongs to. Examples: Dumbledore knows that Harry has
  secrets, and  encourages him to open up about them ("is there anything
  you'd like to tell me, Harry?  Anything at all?"), but doesn't force
  Harry to tell before he is ready. When Harry  inadvertently stumbles
  upon Neville's secret, Dumbledore tells him to keep the secret until
  Neville is ready to tell it himself.

  Hermione does the same for Lupin, concealing that he is a werewolf,
  reasoning that it is not  her
  secret to tell.

  Dumbledore also keeps Snape's secret, and Lupin's secret. (Incidentally,
  the fact that  Dumbledore respects the integrity of Snape's secret,
  whatever it is, is one of the most effective arguments to me that Snape
  is Our Man Snape, truly allied with the powers of light,  as surly as he
  is.)

  When events change, Dumbledore will prod people to disclose their
  secrets because
  circumstances make it necessary--but still, he will give them control by
  allowing them to reveal
  it themselves. Note, for example, in the hospital wing at the end of
  GoF: he says, "It is time for
  two of us to recognize each other for what they are." (This is the
  key--revealing a secret for
  Dumbledore means revealing the true self.) Then he says, "Sirius, if you
  could resume your
  usual form." He doesn't come out and say, "Snape, that dog is Sirius."
  Instead, he lets Sirius
  reveal it himself.

  All of these revelations serve to reveal progressive layers of truth to
  Harry, each layer as he
  grows mature enough to handle it, which in turn reveals to him what his
  relationships are to
  other people. At the end of PoA, he learns that Sirius isn't a murderer,
  but his godfather, his
  surrogate parent, and he is strengthened and encouraged and more firmly
  anchored by learning
  the truth.

  Now let's look at the Other Team in contrast:

  1) members of the Other Team reveal secrets before they are ripe, (and
  not their own secrets,
  either). They also betray secrets entrusted to them. Exhibit 1: Rita
  Skeeter. Exhibit 2:  Wormtail, betraying James and Lily to Voldemort.
  Here you see how secrets and how they  are handled (or betrayed) touches
  upon issues of loyalty, which I wrote about in one of my  previous
  posts.

  2) when revealing another person's secret, members of the Other Team
  will put as negative  an
  interpretation on it as possible. Again, Rita Skeeter is a good example,
  putting as much
  insinuation as possible into her stories about Hagrid, Hermione and
  Harry.  Draco Malfoy is another, who usually worms out what Harry would
  like to have remain private and puts as embarrassing an interpretation
  on it as possible (e.g., the faintness Harry feels around dementors).

  3) conversely, the Other Team keeps secrets PAST the point that they
  should be revealed.  Barty Crouch, Sr. is an example, as are the Death
  eaters, hiding their loyalty to Voldemort.  Winky and Dobby, too, while
  under the Other team's influence, make the mistake of keeping  secrets
  that should be told, out of a kind of mistaken loyalty.

  4) secrets are used to plot, to trick, to trap, to wriggle out of
  consequences for one's own
  behavior. Examples: Barty Crouch, Jr., Wormtail, Voldemort, Lucius
  Malfoy.   (H, R and Hr offer a contrasting example: they keep the secret
  about Hagrid keeping an  illegal dragon. But when caught coming down
  from the tower, they do not lie. They simply  accept their punishment
  stoically. Malfoy, I think, would have lied.)

  Yes, on the other hand, I will admit, Our Team sometimes lies, too,
  including Harry.  But, I
  think, Harry's attitude about this type of lie is changing, as a result
  of his moral education.
  Remember, for example, the time Harry was almost caught by Snape when he
  snuck out to
  Hogsmeade in PoA. He did lie there, and Ron and Lupin covered for him.
  Lupin scolded  Harry severely, though, in a way that I'm sure Harry will
  never forget. Lupin was telling him  here, "If you're going to keep a
  secret, make sure it's a moral secret, one that's worth  keeping.)   We
  later discover a whole other ironic layer to this interchange, when
  Lupin admits that he has been lying, too, to Dumbledore, by not
  revealing that his friends had learned to became animagi, and helped him
  escape from the shrieking shack when he was a werewolf.  Note the
  interplay of secrets and trust here--Lupin had been afraid to admit his
  secret because he couldn't bear to admit how he had violated
  Dumbledore's trust.  Note, too, that Lupin himself eventually reveals
  this secret when it "becomes ripe," i.e., when he has to explain to H, R
  and Hr about Sirius' role, and why they really REALLY needs to see Ron's
  rat.

  So: Lots to think about here, about secrets and what keeping secrets,
  discovering secrets,
  protecting secrets and betraying secrets teaches Harry about himself,
  and teaches all of us  about character and morality.

  Afterthought, related: It has been commented by many critics of the
  series that Harry is a bad
  example, evil, etc., because he lies. That's probably a whole other
  post, but I'll just say that  Harry's moral education is being
  demonstrated by the way he is learning about how to handle secrets and
  how to trust. He has come from a situation  (in the Dursley household)
  where he couldn't share anything about himself. Now, he is beginning to
  trust and to build true, strong relationships, with teachers
  (Dumbledore) parent figures (Sirius and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley) and
  friends. He has to figure out as he goes how much to reveal and how much
  to keep to himself in all of these relationships, and he finds figuring
  out the balancing line rather confusing. See, for example, in the GoF
  the interesting bit about his uncertainty about whether he should have
  revealed to Sirius that his scar was hurting. He struggles to figure out
  who he should entrust with this secret. When he hits upon Sirius as the
  best person to confide in, he is relieved--but then he becomes angry at
  himself and tries to "take the secret back" (my scar really didn't hurt)
  when Sirius takes Harry's news seriously and reacts as a parent would,
  by coming north. Learning how to handle secrets properly is a long,
  complicated learning process, and a very important part of growing up.

  Comments?

  Peg


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