Deliberately Doing the Wrong Thing (Was: Rule Breaking and & HP

[bethyellen at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 29221

Pat of growing up is bending the rules and sometimes breaking them; 
and in turn receiving your punishment. I don't think the Harry Potter 
books actively encourage children to break rules, it's just a 
portrayal of how nearly all children act.
Some children have to learn the hard way, other's avoid doing so, but 
in the end Jk Rowling is portraying the life, say of a 14 year old 
boy, he is not going to live life as a saint.
It also brings the question does Harry ever do anything morally wrong?
Sure he sneaks out of the castle at night, and he did steal from 
Snape's supplies, but at the end of the day, Harry does what he 
think's is right. And so far, it has always turned out for the best.
He's got a lot of good qualities which recommend him, which I feel 
outweigh him breaking some rules.

Bethyellen




--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Susanne Schmid <pigwidgeon37 at y...> wrote:
> 
>  
>   David <dfrankiswork at n...> wrote: 
> 
> <In the former case the rules are there for a reason, and when we 
> <break them, the reason comes back and hits us in the face - <which 
is 
> <what happens, broadly speaking, to Harry. (He doesn't get 
<attacked by 
> <Sirius, but his devaluation of his own worth, which underlies <the 
> <apparent triviality of the rulebreaking, is brought home to <him.)
> 
> In the particular case you and Penny are alluding to, Harry not 
only breaks the rules, but deliberately does the wrong thing. He 
doesn't feel too well about sneaking to Hogsmeade, because he knows 
that he is forbidden to do so for his own good. So breaking this rule 
is not a case of "I know I'm doing what I shouldn't do, but my 
conscience tells me to do it all the same". I suppose that, if Snape 
just for once had renounced making snide comments about Harry's 
father, Harry would have accepted detention or whatever punishment 
without arguing (like he accepted what Lupin says after having got 
him out of that scrap), because he feels that he cannot justify his 
behaviour, neither with Snape nor with Lupin.
> 
>  <snip> 
> 
> <In fiction which claims a moral purpose, 
> <we need for every misdemeanor to get a legalistic punishment or 
<for 
> <the perpetrator to own up to the authorities.
> 
> Or to be miserable, for a period of time we deem appropriate. Being 
punished by authorities is not a sine qua non. As it says in PoA 
(quoting from memory): "Harry felt more miserable becasue of Lupin's 
words that he would have for receiving a detention." I think this is 
a very subtle way to tell us how our children should become: They 
should develop a conscience- so even if they avoid being punished, 
they should at least feel that what they did was not right.
> 
> <Which view do we want children (and grownups) to develop?
> 
> See above.
> 
> Susanna/pigwidgeon37
> 
> 
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