Harry's Curiosity, Etc.

[eccleston at clara.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 14008

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Margaret Dean <margdean at e...> wrote:
> Catlady wrote:
>  
> > Milz wrote:
> > > If I were told that my parents were magical and that I, as an 
infant,
> > > took down the world's greatest villain, I would be very curious 
about
> > >  it all.
> > 
> > I think the Dursleys managed to beat the impulse to ask questions 
out of
> > him.
> 
> Though it's surprising, when you come to think about it, how
> little =else= the Dursleys managed to beat out of Harry,
> considering how they treated him.  In Book I he's somewhat
> withdrawn, and suspicious of adults/authority, but his self-image
> is better than you'd expect and he's certainly never bought into
> the notion that he =deserves= the treatment he's gotten.  =Not=
> the effects we're normally led to expect from child abuse these
> days.
> 
> So . . . was Lily's love protecting him from evils other than
> Voldemort's?  Did he (being magical), somehow "know" throughout
> his childhood that someone did indeed love him, though none of
> the living, breathing people around him ever showed it?
> 
> 
> --Margaret Dean
>   <margdean at e...>

I think Harry's resilience is surprising, given the extreme treatment 
dished out by the Dursley's. In reality, in England, a child who was 
forced to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs and wear the clothes 
Harry does, would have ended up with Social Services getting 
interested. 

I read it as entertaining artistic licence which comically makes a 
point. In most good childrens literature the action takes place after 
the main protagonist has left home for some reason or other. JKR is 
following a tried and tested route into engaging a child readers 
sympathies with a character, and setting an interesting scene for a 
great story.