Ron's Phobias

[Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 16351

Hi --

arabella at sugarquill.com wrote:

> > > He was able to face up to Aragog and his family.
> >
> Me: > Um .... yes & no.  He was silent & hardly able to do more than
> heave himself into the car.  I don't know that it's fair to say that
> he
> truly confronted & overcame his fears.
>
> Arabella: I have a real problem with spiders.  I'd say the mere fact
> that highly phobic Ron followed a streaming line of them into the
> Forbidden Forest, in the dark, not knowing what kind of craziness he
> was going to encounter, says an awful lot about his ability to
> confront and overcome his fears.  Yeah, he was silent, yeah, he
> jumped in that car - I seem to remember Harry jumping in there too...
> let me check... yeah.  Oh, and when Harry yells for Ron to get Fang,
> he's present enough to do so - "Ron seized the boarhound around the
> middle and threw him, yelping, into the back of the car..."  So he
> managed a care outside of his fear at a pretty terrible moment.

I was really just arguing that I'm not sure he's truly *overcome* his
fears of spiders.  He's still apprehensive around them (GoF -- Moody's
curses lesson).  Yes, Harry jumped in the car too; I'm not dissing Ron
for jumping in the car.  But, he wasn't exactly trying to talk to Aragog
& help get them out of that mess.  He left that to Harry.  Truly
confronting & overcoming his fears would involve a bit more than he
did.  But, I don't mean to detract from what he *did* do.  I couldn't
possibly follow a trail of palmetto bugs *anywhere* so he gets credit in
my book.  But, I guess I interpret "confronting & overcoming* a fear
more narrowly than others.  That's all.

Penny


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