Harry's POV? (correction)

[cassandraclaire at mail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 15674

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Neil Ward" <neilward at d...> wrote:
> Neil wrote:

> Responding to me, can I point out that I meant "would not be aware 
of them".
> Otherwise, IMNSHO, I made some very interesting points.
> 
> Neil


*LOL* I thought you did too, Neil. As far as the narration of the 
books goes, they are of course in third person limited and part of 
the reason JKR chose to write them that way, I'd imagine, is that it 
allows her to keep the readers from being away of certain facts 
because Harry is not aware of those facts. It would be possible for 
her to do multiple third person limited views -- we could have a 
chapter from Ron's perspective, followed by one from Hermione's, 
followed by Harry's, and tell the story that way -- but she doesn't. 
We are, always and forever, in Harry's head and we see people as he 
sees them. This does not mean that in cases like his jealousy of 
Cedric we are not aware that this is jealousy and not the way Cedric 
actually is, partially because *Harry* is perfectly aware that this 
is jealousy and not the way Cedric actually is. He liked Cedric just 
fine up until that point and both we and he know that.

The third person limited is also useful in teaching us Muggles about 
the magical world gradually, since we learn as Harry learns. The only 
piece of information I can think of that we have had in the books 
that Harry didn't was the knowledge at the beginning of GoF that 
something funky was going on at the Riddle House, because that was on 
the only chapter of the book *not* told in third person limited. It 
was, IMHO, a framing device.

The fact that the books are in third person limited of course means 
that to some extent we are limited in our knowledge of other 
characters' motivations. I cannot see any basis for arguing otherwise.

Cassie