Harry's Politeness & JKR's Diction

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 29367

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Megan" <virtualworldofhp at y...> wrote:

> I know the Dursleys would only expect Harry to address them with
> respoect (pre-wizardness, I suppose), but I would think this 
> prolonged agony of mistreatment would only turn Harry bitter and 
> make him more like Dudley in terms of politeness. 

That Harry is polite despite the way he was treated for 9 and a half 
years out of his only 11 is just like how he cares about people and 
fairness and is against violence despite those life experiences. In 
the Muggle world, it is known that abused children are less damaged 
by the abuse if they have ONE significant adult in their life who 
treats them with kindness and respect. My theory is that Lily 
used her witch powers to leave an image of herself in baby Harry's 
mind, kind of an 'imaginary mommy' like some people have an 
'imaginary friend', and this image of Lily talked to him 
a lot (and hugged him but not exactly tactilely) when he was alone 
in his cupboard, telling him that he was a good kid who didn't 
deserve to be treated so badly, reminding him that there are other 
people in the world who aren't mean like the Dursleys, and so 
on.

In fact, Harry's resistance to Imperius in GoF was described as 'a 
voice in his head' asked why should he obey "Moody", and I cried 
out: "That's Lily in his head!"

> Along the lines of Harry's politness, the Weasley parents are 
> always named "Mr. Weasley" and "Mrs. Weasley" in every book so far. 
 
I'm so old (just turned 44) that when I was a child, the idea that 
grown-ups HAD first names didn't feel very real to us children, 
so I took the narrator saying Mr. Weasley and Mrs. Weasley just 
because that is how Harry thinks of them as just another, but 
charming, reminder of how very young Harry is.