Ordinary Ron (again)

[Linda C. McCabe]

No: HPFGUIDX 38390

Tabouli wrote:

I in fact have no problem with Ron being an ordinary
kid. Let ordinary people have a representative in the series, I say. After
all, by definition *most* people are ordinary, aren't they? In the ol'
competitive individualistic societies "ordinary" has become a bit of an
epithet (in fact, in Australia "ordinary" is regularly used to mean "bad",
though that's also got to do with the Australian habit of understatement)...
being ordinary is being undistinguished, worthless, of no consequence...
there's this message that you *have* to be special in some way, be uniquely
talented at something, and so on to be of any value, define yourself, stand
out
from the crowd. I say let Ron represent the intrinsic value instead of
comparative value message, show that you don't have to be better than other
people to be worthwhile. Besides which, having all three of the Trio
miraculously turn out to have supernatural ability at something would be a
bit
excessive, in my literary balance book...

Athena here:

Okay, I'll say why I don't want Ron to be just ordinary.  It has to do with
the Mirror of Erised and what Dumbledore had said about Ron desperately
wanting to distinguish himself from his older brothers' shadows.  Ron had
said as much on the Hogwarts Express to Harry the first time they met.  And
this resonated with me because I still feel guilty about my own
overshadowing of my brother.  So I was projecting my own guilt to Ron.  He
had two brothers who were Head Boys, another brother was a star athlete and
was the Quidditch team captain who won the Quidditch Cup, and two other
brothers who were popular.  It doesn't leave any real avenue in school
anyway for him to distinguish himself because he'll be compared with the
successes of any of the other brothers in anything he does.

My own brother's situation is a little different from Ron's.  I only had one
sibling and we grew up in a small town.  Everyone knew everyone and
everyone's business. Gossip reigned supreme.  I happened to be a swotty
little git like Hermione (JKR's description of herself at that age!).  I was
top of my class grades wise and was heavily involved in extra-curricular
activities.  I stood out and teachers who didn't even have me in their
classes knew who I was.  My brother on the other hand was someone that
barely stood out from the wallpaper.  Most people didn't even realize that
we were brother and sister because we were so different even though we were
the only kids in the school with our same last name.  Here's the irony and
the difference from what would be expected, I was four years *younger* than
my brother.  My shadow was actually creeping up and covering him when he was
a senior (12th year) while I was only entering high school (9th grade).

I still feel weird talking with my brother about my life.  I don't tell him
about certain things that might make him jealous because I have a higher
standard of living than he does due to my higher education and better paying
job.  Having an older sibling resent my success in life is a very
uncomfortable position to be in. It's as if he blames me for his own
failures...it would make more sense if our birth orders were reversed.


Anyway, if you want ordinary characters - I think we've got enough of those
in the HPverse.  They are pretty one dimensional ones, but they are from
everything I remember - very ordinary:  Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas,
Lavender Brown, Parvati & Padma Patil, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah
Abbott, Susan Bones.

I just think that the gap in the Weasley Family as well as other clues
(Arthur's discussion of the Dark Mark at the QWC) lead to the potential of a
missing child (Or children) which could make Ron a Seventh Son.  And then -
there's lots of ancient legends regarding the clairvoyant powers of Seventh
Sons.  It's an easy conclusion to think that JKR has been building us up for
this plot twist.  I think it's likely and I think it would work to alleviate
the Mirror of Erised need of Ron to distinguish himself from his older
siblings.  That's why I'm hoping that this theory either as WANDS
CRISS-CROSS or HAGRID WANTS BRASS DRAGONS AS PETS acronyms come into play.
(Both are okay as far as I'm concerned.  I just really didn't like the
WANTON MORASS OF TOSH.  I'll let you and Grey Wolf figure out which one
becomes listed for future reference.)

And really, Ron is not a character that I'm all that interested in.  I just
feel sorry for him, like I feel sorry for my brother.  Now Sirius Black on
the other hand...that's a character that I'm quite taken with.  Yummmm. ;-)

Athena