Hagrid's Competence And Other Flaws

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 33974

Mahoney wrote (regarding Hagrid):

> Hagrid's flaws are more difficult in some ways to gloss over.  I 
> regard Hagrid in a similar way to how I regard Snape.  I love both 
> characters because they are interesting and surprising; I feel 
> affectionate toward Hagrid despite his flaws, but I happily loathe 
> Snape in spite of his positive qualities.  <snip>
> 
> So in Hagrid, Harry experiences the need to balance friendship with 
> forgiveness, and it's to Harry's credit that he doesn't drop the 
> friendship nor backstab Hagrid when faced with Hagrid's weird 
> behavior.  That's Easy.  The Hard thing to do will be to learn to 
> accept, and not revile, Snape.  

All interesting points and valid points, Mahoney.  

I know I won't win any converts to the Critics of Hagrid viewpoint, 
but Mahoney's post does help me crystalize my thinking about what it 
is about Hagrid's flaws that bugs me more than the flaws of others.  
Snape, Sirius, and Lupin have all said or done things that are quite 
questionable, and in some cases, indefensible.  As Mahoney points 
out, Harry isn't holding a grudge, so why am I so hard on Hagrid?

One reason is that out of these 4 characters (Snape, Sirius, Lupin, 
and Hagrid), Hagrid is unique because he is the only one with a 
close, mentoring relationship with Harry who frequently models poor 
behavior/judgment for no good reason.  If Harry were to emmulate 
Hagrid's behavior, Harry would grow up to drink to excess, resort to 
violence unnecessarily, exercise poor judgment, and break rules as a 
matter of convenience rather than when there is no other way to 
accomplish a noble goal.  

I'd bet the parents on the board know exactly what I mean.  The cop 
pulls you over, and you'd really like to tell her what to do with her 
traffic ticket, and you swallow it and behave yourself to model good 
behavior for the kids.  Hagrid's offense in my eyes is largely that 
he doesn't often do the right thing in light of the special 
relationship he has with Harry.  Yes, I know that kids can turn out 
fine even if the adults in their lives aren't perfect, and Harry 
likely will.  It's just that parents and other important adults in a 
kid's life ought to try awfully hard to model good behavior, even 
when it is inconvenient.  Hagrid frequently falls short of good 
behavior in Harry's presence, and it is hard for me to respect him as 
a result.

Compare Sirius and Lupin.  Yes, Sirius was a hothead in PoA, but 
Sirius' excesses in Harry's presence were all justified by the need 
to apprehend Pettigrew.  Sirius was the model of appropriate behavior 
in GoF.  Lupin, of course, always (with one exception I won't expound 
on here) models good behavior for Harry.  Snape, on the other hand, 
is not really a father-figure/mentor to Harry in the sense that 
Sirius, Lupin and Hagrid are and therefore is held to a different 
(lower) standard in my eyes.  Also, we still don't know enough about 
what makes Snape tick to judge whether his motives are noble.

Ah, well.  It's a funny thing.  I don't find Hagrid especially 
annoying or detest him or anything.  He's just a flat-liner for me, 
and if he were dropped from the series without so much as a farewell 
paragraph, I wouldn't miss him.  More space would be available for 
Lupin!  :-)

Cindy