Harry's lack of curiosity was Re: The Elusive Harry Fortnight

[naama_gat at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 17746

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., catherine at c... wrote:
> > 
> > I am rather surprised at Harry's lack of curiousity about his
family
> > past.  Now that he's had a few years to get used to the wizarding
> > world, I would have thought he'd be spending some time researching
> > his heritage.
> > 
> > I don't mean just his parents: Hagrid's thoughtful gift of the
photo
> > album might have slaked an initial thirst for core knowledge.  But
> > what about grandparents and ancestors?  Family history?  And for 
> that
> > matter, how about asking Hagrid about the various friends and
former
> > classmates who contributed the pics?
> > 
> > It just seems that he would be more curious.
> 
> I've wondered about this too - and indeed, have been frustrated by 
> Harry's lack of curiousity.  I came to the dubious conclusion that 
> this is merely a devise by which JKR keeps us guessing - I have a 
> feeling that there are important things to be revealed about Harry's 
> family/ancestors which she does not want to divulge yet.  Mind you, 
> the odd rebuffed question from Harry would not go amiss.

On thinking of this issue, I am reminded of the way many children of
Holocaust survivors describe their parents' attitude regarding their
experiences. It was not discussed. It was a secret around which  the
family's lives turned, whose heavy presence was felt all the time, but
never mentioned. Often, the only tangible sense of it would be hearing
their parents scream at night when dreaming.
Years later, the parents explained that they didn't want to burden
their children with unimaginable horrors. They also felt that they
needed to behave is such a way for themsleves - that the only way for
them to survive was to "put all that behind them".

My feeling is that Harry, who went through a huge trauma, is reacting
similarly. Yes, it's not quite the same, since he does want to see his
parents and connect with them is some way. But he has barely reached
that basic level of connectedness with his dead parents. It is still
so emotionally raw for him. It seems quite reasonable to me that at
this stage he would instinctively recoil from investigating his
family's history.  
Again, to return to Holocaust survivors - many started to think and
talk and write and remember only thirty or fourty years after. And
with that often came a renewed interest in familial history. It seems
that first you have to come to terms with the fact that your family
has been annihilated, and only then does it become bearable to think
of the family when the people were alive.

Naama