Hagrid's Competence And Other Flaws

[ftah3]

No: HPFGUIDX 33977

cindysphynx wrote:
> 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.  

Indeed I do.  I'm also aware that my son may grow up to really enjoy 
the company of my likeable, well-meaning, but heavy-drinking cussing 
lay-about brother-in-law, but I don't loathe the guy for it, and 
until I see that my son is the type to emmulate that kind of behavior 
(he's only three, so I've a bit of time to wait), I'm fairly content 
knowing that my son also has other, more responsible role models who 
may influence him.  

Harry Potter has a lot of role models in his 
life, doesn't seem incredibly prone to emmulating Hagrid and as I 
said in my previous post seems to view Hagrid rather 
philosophically.  I'm not in any Love-Hagrid Club, I just also view 
Hagrid philosophically.  Especially as he is an interesting part of a 
neat, fictional tapestry and not a real person.

>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.

And some characters are incapable of being good role models ~ not 
because they're lousy people, but because they haven't experienced 
the proper socialization or haven't the mental equipment necessary.  
Hagrid's characterization consistently shows an individual who has no 
clue that he's acting inappropriately, and my assumption is that he'd 
be utterly surprised and horrified to discover that he's considered a 
bad role model.  I don't think he has a real concept of how to be a 
good role model; his mindset in general is so very off the beaten 
path.

> Also, we still don't know enough about 
> what makes Snape tick to judge whether his motives are noble.

And to be fair, I don't think we know enough about Hagrid to judge 
whether or not he is being ignoble, backwards, or (if one buys 
the 'nature' argument for personality traits) a typical half-giant.

> 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.  

Ah, but would you appreciate the lack of writerly finesse (read: 
laziness) apparent in such a drop-kick?  It'd scream "plot hole!" to 
me....  ;-)

Mahoney