[HPforGrownups] Re: Harry's upbringing

[Devika S. Lal]

No: HPFGUIDX 30573

Chip Olson wrote:
<<< My wife, who studied the effects and implications of childhood trauma
very  intensively in graduate school, has commented that Harry's level of
coping and social adjustment is far, far higher than could be expected from
someone with that kind of upbringing, to the point of   being utterly
unrealistic. She would have expected him to develop into   a complete
sociopath (and she is *very* much not the sort to underestimate the
resilience of the human psyche). >>>

A sociopath?  Like what Tom Riddle became?  I'm not arguing with you--I'm
certainly not an expert in the effects of childhood trauma.  Harry's
adjustment may very well be unrealistic.  However, I don't think that's the
point.  I think that we should look at Harry's resilience not as being
unrealistic, but as being the complete opposite of Tom Riddle's way of
coping with his childhood.  I think that this is JKR's way of showing that
two people can turn out to be completely different even though they may have
had similar childhoods.  It all depends on what they want to make of their
lives.  I wrote a post a while back about this saying that the very
similarities between Harry and Tom Riddle--their physical resemblance, their
childhood upbringing--just serve to highlight the important differences
between them.  Tom chose to become Voldemort, while Harry chose to fight
Voldemort.  Why did JKR bother to form the parallels between Harry and Tom?
I think she uses the similarities as a device to prove to us what Dumbledore
says:  that it is our choices that shape who we truly are and who we become.

Devika




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