[HPforGrownups] Re: Harry the Seeker

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 48485

Melody:
> Joanne wrote:
> >Aside from his Zen "one-with-the-snitch" approach that someone else
> >mentioned, he hasn't shown the slightest inclination toward obsessive
> >behavior.  He would have to change a lot over the course of the
> >remaining books for it to be plausible.
> 
> 
> The mirror chapter in PS/SS was a start of obsession.  He felt
> compelled to go back to it even when his best friend said he
> shouldn't.  He sat for hours and just stared at it.  That is
> obsession.  Just at an early stage, so Harry *does* have it in him.
> Especially when it comes to things he yearns for.  Maybe, Dumbledore
> stamped out his obsessive nature soon enough by showing the boy the
> ill logic of it, or maybe it is still there and can only be provoked
> by deep, deep feelings.

Eloise:
Yes...but the Mirror is an interesting case.
I think the lesson that we are supposed to learn from the Mirror of Erised is 
again to do with *what* our desires are and how we handle them: our 
motivation in seeking. It teaches (when there is someone of wisdom to point 
this out) that we cannot waste our lives in the pusuit of *empty* dreams. 

(There are also other considerations: the fact that Dumbledore may have 
allowed Harry to find the mirror precisely to allow him to start to come to 
terms with the loss of the family that he had never yet mourned, a part of 
Harry's psychology which is still underdeveloped and the plot-driven 
necessity of Harry's exploring the mechanism of the mirror in advance of 
meeting it in the secret chamber.)

Now yes, I would agree that it is Ron who recognises its dangers, but that I 
would attribute to the fact that Ron has a little more worldly wisdom 
regarding magical objects. It sounds like precisely the sort of object that 
his father would have warned him about. It is the mirror itself which is the 
author of the obsession by encouraging the unwary to dwell on the 
unattainable.

In fact, under the circumstances, Harry seems to have put the mirror episode 
and his longing for his parents pretty remarkably behind him, doesn't he, 
until he starts reliving the night of their deaths in PoA..

And then at the climax of PS/SS, it is the Mirror which highlights the 
difference in *motivation* between Harry and Quirrell.

> 
> Rachel wrote:
> >I think that the reason Harry sought to protect himself from the
> >dementors was not so much about a single-minded obsession.  Wood
> >wasn't going to let him play if he didn't find a way to take care of
> >his 'problem'.  I know kids on a sports team hate being benched- this
> >could have been the motivation here.
> 

Melody:
> I would tend to agree with you Rachel except the text does not support
> that assertion.  Yes, Wood *greatly* wants to win that cup, and yes,
> Harry is completely aware that Wood wants him to catch that snitch.  I
> just find it a stretch that a 13 year-old boy would spend all his free
> time for the main purpose of making an older student happy.  Frankly,
> it seems Harry wanted to protect his game and that was the *main*
> motivation.
> 
> When Harry first came out of his short coma after falling from his
> broom and learned what happened, he asked-
> ---
> (PoA, Ch 9)
> "But the match," said Harry.  "What happened?  Are we doing a replay?"
> No one said anything.  The horrible truth sank into Harry like a
> stone.  "We didn't - *lose*?"
> 
> Harry lay there, not saying a word.  They had lost...for the first
> time ever, he had lost a Quidditch game.
> ---
> 
> And when Harry was with Lupin at their first Patronus practice, Harry
> said-
> ---
> (PoA, Ch 12)
> "I've got to!  What if the dementors turn up at our match against
> Ravenclaw?  I can't afford to fall off again.  If we lose this game
> we've lost the Quidditch Cup!"
> 
> This meant that with Lupin's anti-dementor classes, which in
> themselves were more draining that six Quidditch practices, Harry had
> just one night a week to do all his homework.
> ---
> 
> From all that I would say Harry himself is quite motivated to win on
> his own and does not need the pressure or a threat from Wood to
> perfect his game.  He is quite into winning on his own.
> 
> And besides, if Wood threatened to "bench" Harry, the threat would be
> empty.  Without Harry, Gryffindor would definitely loose.  There is
> still no back-up seeker.

I hear all that you're saying, Melody, but again we have a disagrement over 
the motivation issue.

Now yes, I do agree that Harry is highly motivated on his own behalf, because 
this is the first thing in his life that he's ever been really good at and 
the first thing that has ever given him any peer recognition (and we all know 
that in a school situation, being a sports star heavily outweighs having been 
the one to defeat the Dark Lord as an infant!)

However.....I think we are supposed to read Harry as very much a team player. 
He wants to win, because he wants his team to win, for the the honour of his 
house. As you say there is *no* reserve seeker and since the seeker is 
normally the one who wins the match, the responsibility placed upon his 
shoulders is huge. *Harry* losing a Quidditch match means *Gryffindor* losing 
a match.

I believe Harry is *very* motivated when it comes to house loyalty. I don't 
believe that the emphasis that is put on the results in terms of personal 
standing amongst his peers of his losing house points detracts from the 
loyalty that he expresses or his intense desire to see his house succeed.

But motivated as he is towards his house, when bigger issues are at stake, he 
will risk losing popularity, risk the short-term interests of his house in 
pursuit of a higher goal. As he did in deciding to go after, as he thought, 
Snape to protect the Philosopher's Stone.

If Harry's obsessed with anything, it's catching that elusive snitch which 
signals the defeat of Voldemort.

Which is sort of the point, isn't it? :-)

Eloise

> 
> 



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