Harry's goal, Harry's resilience

[jenny_ravenclaw]

No: HPFGUIDX 34637

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Jo Jackson" <jo.jackson at b...> wrote:

> I speculate that the intensity of the bond in those first months of 
life is what has carried Harry through...and he remembers every other 
bit of positive attention he has ever recieved as a child...'you bowed 
to me in a shop once'.>

Yes - there has been much speculation about this and many people have 
said that Harry has most definitely retained the love he received from 
his parents while they were alive.  Others say that Lily somehow 
transferred even more love into Harry when she died, which resulted in 
an unusual sense of confidence and strong sense of right and wrong in 
Harry.  
 
> Some children with an abusive background however, turn into very 
special people.  The studies that are done on these people talk about 
the extraordinary quality of resilience they have...and resilience is 
Harry's dominant characteristic, IMO.>

He sure is resilient!  I also like to think that at a very young age 
Harry became aware of how horrible the Dursleys were, not just to him, 
but perhaps by observing others' reactions to them.   We know from SS 
that Dudley is the school bully and no one wants to get in the way of 
his gang.  Most kids don't like bullies; they fear bullies.  Uncle 
Vernon is also portrayed as a bit of a bully as he yells constantly 
while he is at work and then again at Harry while he is home.  Through 
seeing these things, Harry might have thought to himself that he 
didn't want to be like Dudley or his parents, and always reminded 
himself to be polite, to not whine and cry, to not be greedy, etc.  

 > Anyway, what does Harry want to do?>

My answer to this makes me feel a bit sad for Harry.  What I think 
Harry wants to do is fit in.  He wants to have friends and a family, 
to have fun at school and to play Quidditch.  I feel for him because 
he never asked for the burden of being "famous Harry Potter", yet he 
handles it graciously.  Aside from those things, I think Harry would 
like to help defeat Voldemort and to help make the wizarding world a 
less prejudiced, more tolerant one.  I don't think he thinks about the 
latter as much as he thinks about how great it would be to be a member 
of a nice big family like the Weasleys, though.

--jenny from ravenclaw *********************