[Ron Week]: More Questions

[Ebony AKA AngieJ]

No: HPFGUIDX 16206

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., linman6868 at a... wrote:
> 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.  

Ron's day is yet to come IMO.  I still say that he needs a Subplot Or 
Two Of His Own.  

I also agree that the Ron of PS/SS is morphing into a VERY different 
character... one who is making me nervous.  I'm reading Tolkien for 
the very first time since age 14, and for some reason, Ron and the 
rings are just bouncing off one another in my head.

> And music. (((:-)  (Pawn in Frankincense, anyone? [dodges spitwads 
> from Ontario])  Ron hasn't, IMO, had a chance to exhibit his 
> strategical abilities. 

Yes, yes, yes!  I think that in developing so many other characters, 
JKR has left Ron pretty much on the back burner of things in the last 
two books.  I'd like to see him take a more active role in things 
just as he did in PS/SS.

>In PoA he was out cold, so Harry had to do 
> the strategical thinking for the rescue.  

And Hermione's Time-Turner was the key to setting things right.  
Ron's rat, however, was partly responsible for making things wrong in 
the backstory.  Now, SugarQuillers, *put. down. those. 
flamethrowers.*, I'm not blaming Ron for Scabbers/Pettigrew.  Not at 
all.  But "why is everything I own rubbish" is a telling remark.

Ron is emphatically *not* as developed as Hermione.  Compare the 
Hermione FAQ to the Ron FAQ.  When I decided to think and write about 
Ron last fall, I combed through canon three times with notebook in 
hand, jotting down pages.  I was disappointed... Ron's there, but 
then he's not there.

Again, *Ron needs to be center stage more*.  He can't just be there 
for comic relief.  JKR's too good of a storyteller for that.


> 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.  

Yes, I agree!  Ron is wrestling.  

I teach kids like Ron--and no, Ron is NOT like all 14 year old boys, 
or even a "typical" 14 year old boy.  What on earth is typical, 
anyway?  Whenever I hear this, it annoys me.  It always annoys me 
when excuses are made for kids who are "showing out" for whatever 
reason.  We've all got problems.

You'd think my students would hate me for my refusal to cater to 
their hormones.  They don't.  Not even the Rons.

The last thing Ron needs is to be babied and pitied.  He's growing 
into a man.  I want him to have his chance to shine.

And when he does, it doesn't have to be at the expense of Harry, 
either.  The argument "Ron needs something Harry doesn't have" flies 
right over my head.  I never understood what one friend's success had 
to do with the other.  Besides, (Ebony repeats for the HUNDREDTH time 
since July) RON DOES HAVE SEVERAL THINGS THAT HARRY DOES NOT.

1)  Parents
2)  Siblings (love 'em or hate 'em, in the long run they're good to 
have)
3)  Fresh air and sunshine on a regular basis up until the age of 11
4)  Toys as a kid (at least a teddy bear)
5)  Insights into the world he has to grow up in
6)  Probably was allowed to eat as much as he wanted, where Harry was 
not (see first Sorting Feast) 
7)  People to play with who didn't beat the crap out of him (okay, 
I'll allow that Gred and Forge may have on occasion, but...) 
8)  A broomstick before he started school (mentioned in CoS--it was 
only a Shooting Star, but still... it was *something*!)
9)  The overall benefit of having people in life who *will* love you 
unconditionally (from birth)
 
Could think of more, but I'm tired.

I'm *sure* Ron will sit back and count his blessings sometime during 
the summer between GoF and Book 5 (the longest summer on record in 
the Muggle world).  And don't tell me that 14 year old boys don't 
pause for introspection.  Remarks like that let me know that people 
don't mix with kids very often.

Kids aren't half as shallow as some seem to think.
  
> Ron's talent, as someone noted, seems to be most visible in 
Potions.  

He cuts up dandelion roots neatly.  What else?

When I was in college, I did street evangelism.  I'm going to finally 
uuse some of the lingo that some of the people we witnessed to 
did.  "Recite chapter and verse, please."

Please, someone show me this in canon.  I'd like to know.

> 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.  

All interesting points.  I especially like that last sentence.

It seems to me that the space in which Ron's character could have 
been developed more has been occupied by Weasley family development 
in general. 

> Ron's Mean Streak.  I have a brother Ron's age.  <snip of some good 
stuff!> 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.
>

Hmm.  Will wait to see what others have to say on this.

> 
> And finally, my biggest beef and paradoxically my greatest sympathy 
> with Ron:  The boy can't admit he's wrong to save his life.  >

Okay, *that* must be it.  Everything you cited, Lisa, stuck in my 
memory long after I finished the book.  I just didn't get it.  At 
all.  Nothing anyone's posted for the past ten months has made me get 
it any better, either.  I suppose only JKR and Book 5 will be able to 
do 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.
>

Whoop, there it is.  ;-)  Couldn't have said it better myself.  
However, although I can kiss terra firma one in a while with relief 
("get me OFF this ship for a minute"), "the sea is in me blood".
 
> I love Ron, though I would really love to slap him sometimes.  

That's my position when all is said and done, too, Lisa.

--Ebony