Harry and his emotions

[Scott]

No: HPFGUIDX 8364

Rachelle Elliott wrote:
"In GoF, Harry stays very strong and does not break down and cry. 
[snip]The question is: When do you think Harry will actually break 
down and cry about the situation he has been placed in?  He has had 
an enormous amount of stress for a child/teenager should have to 
endure.  My thought, when Dumbledore sacrifices his life to save 
Harry may be a breaking point for him."

Voicelady wrote:
"Very good question.  *I* think that when Harry cries (and I think he 
will), it will be at the very end of the story, once everything is 
finalized and set to rights.  It will all be over, there will be no 
more pressure, and the tears will finally come as an emotional 
release."


But isn't that human nature?  I mean we all hold back our emotions to 
a certain extent and I find it VERY believable that Harry does too. 
Then again I also find it hard to buy that Harry has NEVER cried (I 
can't recall a time when he has- does someone want to correct me?).

To quote John Lennon-
"Some things are too painful to feel, so you stop them.  We have the 
ability to block feelings and that's what we do most of the time...

"All art is pain expressing itself.  I think all life is, everthing 
we do, but particularly artists- that's why we are always vilified.  
They're always persecuted because they show pain; they can't help 
it.  They express it in art and the way they live, and people don't 
like to see that reality that they're suffering.

"When you're a child you can only take so much pain.  It literally 
blocks off part of your body.  It's like not wanting to know about 
going to the toliet or having a bath. If you don't do it for a long 
time, it accumulates.  And emotions are the same way, you accumulate 
them over the years and they come out in other forms: violence or 
baldness or shortsitedness"

I thought this was especially appropriate for this thread. The part 
about art in particular.  I have always thought that there are more 
ways are expressing emotion than just laughing or crying etc. I don't 
know about the other writers on this list but IMO writing itself is a 
way to purge the soul. My guess is that it is the same for singing, 
dancing, painting, drawing, acting or any other form of artistic 
expression.  This is ironic too because when you look at it reading 
is the very antithesis of writing.  Reading is an escape but writing 
forces one to face the often bitter truth, and that can be painful.

I guess a good question would be just how does this tie into Harry?  
Well, just how does Harry purge his own emotion? On the Quidditch 
field perhaps. And maybe Hermione lets out her emotions by delving 
into the quest for academic exellence. So (now I'm afraid I'm 
digressing into a bit of shipping) just what does Ron do to release 
his emotion. In two words (and IMO) he doesn't. I think this is why 
when it comes to Ron I am a no-shipper. I don't think he will be able 
to have a stable relationship (romantic or otherwise)with anyone 
until he is able to come to terms with himself.  

In short (or after glancing at my message- not so short) I don't 
think that Harry has to "have a good cry" to feel released from his 
axnieties and fears.  I'm not against crying because it CAN be a 
cleansing experience but there are other ways of dealing with 
emotion.  Some of you may disagree with this message (as you did with 
the shipper debate) but that's what we're he for. How boring life 
would be if we all look at things the same way! Our views are 
coloured by our experiences, and in my experience crying as an 
immediate reaction in relation to grief has always seemed to be 
superficial. I guess that death, or any type of hard-hitting loss, 
hits me in a place that is far past tears. 

Ok, I've managed to bore everyone with this rather OT message...


Scott