[Ron Week]: More Questions

[linman6868 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 16196

Great questions, Jim!

The ability to play chess well indicates a high native intellect, 
> the ability to think strategically, and the ability to consider a 
> large number of simultaneous threats.  Good chess players are 
> frequently good in science and mathematics.  

And music. (((:-)  (Pawn in Frankincense, anyone? [dodges spitwads 
from Ontario])  Ron hasn't, IMO, had a chance to exhibit his 
strategical abilities.  In PoA he was out cold, so Harry had to do 
the strategical thinking for the rescue.  In GoF, he's wrestling too 
much with his demons to take a chess-like attitude either to the 
Triwizard Tournament or the "Unexpected Task".  Ron has, however, 
albeit inconsistently, displayed an ability to be imaginatively 
precise (e.g., his made-up Divinations lessons).  Like Neville's 
talent in Herbology, this doesn't show up as a superstar gift, and 
often he uses it for less-than-admirable purposes--as when he helps 
Harry plot to sneak into Hogsmeade in PoA.  

Ron's talent, as someone noted, seems to be most visible in Potions.  
Unfortunately his younger-sibling underachievement coupled with 
Snape's antagonism trip him up here.  In other classes, he seems to 
have the most trouble with spells that require character, as with the 
Imperius Curse, which he raised his hand to mention--"is it called 
the Imperius Curse, or something?"  That whole exchange says a lot 
about Ron, and incidentally is one example of why I think Ron's 
characterization is not really comparable to Hermione's for strength; 
it seems to develop through pinprick details rather than rich 
sweeping trajectories.  Ron also has trouble doing spells when he's 
irritated or distracted.  But he can knock out a troll at random and 
doesn't, apparently, develop the block about Summoning Charms that 
Harry does.

Ron's Mean Streak.  I have a brother Ron's age.  He's a sweet kid, 
but when he and his friends get together, they love to ridicule as 
much as anyone else.  They are not the popular ones at school--oh how 
I remember the days of Band Nerds Anonymous--but there's not, for 
that reason, a lack of fodder for contemptuous jokes amongst them.  
Harry, having been the butt of many of these jokes because of Dudley, 
isn't inclined to participate in such things; and Hermione is too 
serious about her work to be interested in such immaturity, besides 
being a prime candidate for ridicule herself.  And indeed much of 
Ron's juvenile volcano of ridicule spills over most often on Hermione-
-in PoA it's mentioned that he calls Hermione a bossy know-it-all at 
least twice a week (? I don't have the book).  At the moment, he's 
defending her against Snape.  And speaking of Snape, he has less 
reason than Harry to hate him, but he takes up the cause 
enthusiastically.  It's juvenile insecurity, and it would be plain 
and simple except that, as Lord Peter said about sexual complexes, 
it's usually found attached to a person of some sort.

Which brings me to the mention someone made of Ron as a Prefect.  
Boy, this really surprised me.  I never thought of Ron as Prefect 
potential.  He's too contemptuous for authority figures (I suspect, 
because he feels himself unduly inadequate to them and thus feels he 
has to defend himself) to be an obvious choice.  I can see McGonagall 
choosing him as Prefect to chuck him in at the deep end of the 
authority pond and see if he could swim.  And he probably could, 
although he'd have some difficulty with Harry's nocturnal urges and 
Fred and George's seventh-year senioritis.  However, my choice for 
the Griffindor prefect is Hermione, based on Ron's passing sneer 
about Hermione acting like a *prefect* and Hermione's hurt 
response, "You say that like it's a bad thing."  (Can't look this one 
up either--I hate lending books.)  Also, Hermione's star-student 
status, especially as noticed and encouraged by McGonagall, makes her 
a more likely choice.  Query:  is there only one Prefect per House?  

And finally, my biggest beef and paradoxically my greatest sympathy 
with Ron:  The boy can't admit he's wrong to save his life.  I wanted 
to throw something at him all through PoA.  He never did admit to 
Hermione that he'd been unfair about Scabbers's disappearance; in GoF 
it takes Harry being in a life-threatening situation for Ron to wake 
up out of his jealousy and stutter "No--I shouldn't've--"...  And 
after the Horntail scene, he's trying to cover his backside by 
joining in on the suspicion toward Karkaroff ("by the time they 
reached the Owlery he was saying they should have suspected it all 
along.  'Fits, doesn't it?'"...)  He scorns Hermione for trying to 
think realistically about the rest of the Tournament ("Right little 
ray of sunshine, aren't you?  You and Professor Trelawney should get 
together sometime.")  I'm not saying he didn't learn anything in GoF; 
but his defense--scorn the other and pretend you're still right even 
when you're wrong--is still his standard defense and he's still 
struggling with it.

Will this turn him into a DE?  No, don't think so.  Will it make him 
a dupe? i.e., will he at some crisis choose what is "easy" rather 
than right?  I think he's in danger of that as he is right now.  I 
expect that, if Hermione becomes a prefect and Ron's relationship 
with her grows more volatile (for whatever reason [waving at the 
shippers from her landlubber perch on--Cape Hatteras or something]), 
this struggle of his is bound to become more paramount to the plot, 
not less.

I love Ron, though I would really love to slap him sometimes.  So 
just excuse me while I slap my brother.

Whoo, that was long.  But it was fun.  :)

Lisa