Ambition in the Wizarding World (Ron, Percy and Bill)

[elfundeb at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 38730

Cindy, coming in late on Ron's ambition: 

> Hmmm.  I think it's a tough sale to say that Ron is ambitious.  Ron, 
> rather than striving toward something, just wants things.  Better 
> yet, he wants them handed to him, and the only effort he's willing 
> to put forth at times is to hold out his hand.  So count me among 
> those who think Ron has an eager or strong *desire* for things like 
> fame or fortune, but lacks a desire to put in the effort to 
> *achieve* these things.
> 
> [snips Cindy's search for C.R.A.B. badge, which she inadvertently dropped 
> off the deck of the Big Bang Destroyer, while arguing for more molten lava 
> on Stoned! Harry; holds Cindy's rescued C.R.A.B. badge in hand and 
> contemplates whether to keep it or let Cindy have it back]

> And I'm not saying he doesn't have positive qualities.  Deciding not 
> to be ambitious is fine, really.  I'm just having trouble with the 
> idea that he is ambitious because he dreams of distinguishing 
> himself but takes few steps to make it happen.
> 
I'll join in, even later than Cindy, because I have a (probably 
unsurprisingly) different view of Ron's ambition.

I believe that Ron is not lacking in ambition, talent or willingness to work 
hard, but that he suppresses it.  Accordingly, in the ordinary course of 
events, Ron masks his abilities and desires in a show of lackadaisical 
unconcern. Ron's talents manifest themselves only in rare, stressful moments, 
such as:

1. Mastering Wingardium Leviosa when Harry and Hermione were being threatened 
by a twelve-foot troll. 
2. Executing the chess sacrifice.
3. Realizing that Ginny knew the secret of the Chamber of Secrets, and 
suggesting the first step in the plan of action that led to her rescue.
4. Researching for Buckbeak's appeal with a determination never applied to 
his homework.

Actually, I really like the way Cindy expressed it:

> That said, the Good Guys always seem to find some major ambition 
> from somewhere when the situation demands it -- like while battling 
> it out on a rickety catwalk over a river of molten lava.  ;-)
> 
And then there are all of those other situations, also well documented, where 
he is willing to sacrifice himself for his friends.  There's one thing all of 
the actions have in common:  He doesn't do any of them for himself.   Cindy, 
Barb Purdom and others believe this indicates a lack of ambition.  

Barb also said:

Remember, in the first book, he [Ron] was
the one with the strength to walk away from the Mirror
of Erised (which SHOWED him as Head Boy and Quidditch
captain), while Harry wanted to keep going back and
stare at his family. 

But I'm not convinced it was strength that kept Ron from going back to the 
mirror.  I think he may have been scared by the vision of his suppressed 
ambitions staring him in the face and its implications.   Why?  I think there 
are a number of reasons, all related in some way to the Weasley family 
dynamic.  (It's interesting that until I began to focus on this question I 
had always recalled Harry's reason for liking the Burrow as because everyone 
seemed to like each other.  But I looked it up, and that's not what he 
thought; it was because everyone seemed to like *him*.) 

One is his fear of failure, which he expresses on the train to Hogwarts in 
PS/SS - if he's not Head Boy or Quidditch captain, he'll be a failure - that 
is, unless he doesn't try. But he hasn't fully suppressed the desire for 
success and the recognition that goes with it.  It's ever present in his 
choice of friends, a probable Head Girl and Quidditch Captain.  It rears its 
ugly head when he tries to accept recognition for essentially passive 
activities, such as being attacked by Sirius in his dormitory or being 
rescued from the lake.  

Tabouli kindly pointed out to me once before when I mentioned Ron's apparent 
lack of ambition:
> 
> Oo, also interesting.  Too scared and self-conscious to try for fear of 
being upstaged yet again? (therefore if he fails, he can always tell himself 
he didn't really try anyway). Hmm.  Could be, could be.  Note that initially 
at least *Harry* hasn't done anything conscious to secure his fame either, he 
just passively lay in his cot and deflected Voldemort's AK.  *And* was made 
Seeker by virtue of breaking a school rule in defence of Neville.  How 
depressing for a boy who's already lived his life in his brothers' shadow.  
Not to mention Ginny, who just sat there passively being the only girl and 
thereby getting special attention.  You could argue that Ron does have 
examples around him that passively awaiting something to happen can provide 
results...
> 
And that's why he's so frustrated when Harry becomes a Triwizard champion.  
Harry doesn't do anything to earn it, and he has to come to terms with that.

A second reason may be the fact that Ron is profoundly affected by the 
family's poverty, and it may be one more reason to reject Molly's ambitions 
for her sons.  After all, there's a clear disconnect between Molly's pushing 
her children to academic success in order to start a career in the Ministry 
and Arthur's position.  Arthur's been working at the Ministry for many years 
and can barely support his family.  There are clues that may suggest much 
more to the Weasley family background than we - or the younger Weasley 
children - are aware of, such as the family's reactions to the events at the 
Quidditch World Cup, but there's no suggestion in canon that the younger 
Weasley children have any understanding of these circumstances.    

Percy, OTOH, has bought Molly's agenda wholesale, suggesting another reason 
for Ron's rejection of ambition.  He does not want to be Percy, endlessly 
tormented by the charismatic Twins and becoming ever more pompous in defense. 
So, Ron outwardly allies himself with the twins to avoid being tormented 
himself. He consciously becomes an anti-Percy and more Twin-like.   (I 
actually think Ron's fear of spiders may have as much to do with his fear of 
becoming a target as the spiders themselves; after all, the triggering event 
was that Fred turned his teddy bear into a spider because he broke one of 
Fred's toys.) 

In spite of Ron's attempt to be the anti-Percy, in fact I think they are very 
much alike, two bookends driven apart by the noisy, attention-getting twins.  
There are little details suggesting how they're alike, starting with their 
tall and lanky builds (shared with Bill, but not with their shorter, 
stockier, Quidditch-playing brothers).  Both have a tendency to embarrass 
easily.  Both demonstrate very strong loyalties.  Both are somewhat insecure 
about their position in the family and have a consequent need for 
recognition.  But because of that wedge that's been driven between them, they 
have opposite reactions to Molly's ambitions, and are in opposition to each 
other.

If Percy and Ron, despite their similarities, represent the opposites of 
accepting and rejecting Molly's ambitions for them, how can they be 
reconciled?  Is there a middle ground?  How about the third member of the 
trio of tall and lanky Weasley sons?  Bill Weasley represents the amalgam of 
Percy's acceptance and Ron's apparent rejection of Molly's goals. He achieved 
the academic success that Molly wanted for him, but charted his own career 
course outside the Ministry.  I may be reading a lot into a few sentences of 
text, but I think Bill may be an example of the "good" kind of ambition and, 
therefore, an example for Percy and Ron.

We haven't seen much of Bill yet.  But the glimpse of him we got in GoF is 
very intriguing.  He's a bit of a nonconformist.  He also appears to have a 
good relationship with both Percy and Ron.  For example, on more than one 
occasion, he affectionately calls Percy "Perce."  He's sensitive to Percy's 
annoyance when he and Charlie are making such a racket with the tables in the 
garden, even good-naturedly asking him how the cauldron bottoms are coming.  
Later on, at Hogwarts for the third task, he remarks sympathetically about 
how much trouble Percy is having at the Ministry.  But when Percy's mania for 
correctness gets out of hand, as when he begins to criticize Arthur for his 
handling of Rita Skeeter after the WWC, Bill is quick to tell Percy to "shut 
it," again calling him "Perce."   There seems to be some sort of mentoring 
relationship between them.  There's also some evidence that he might (or 
could) function in a similar role for Ron as well.  He chastizes Ron at the 
QWC, telling him to "use his brains."  There's also a scene in GoF at the 
Burrow the night before everyone leaves for Hogwarts, in which every 
character is described to be doing something very characteristic of who they 
are.  Harry is polishing his Firebolt, Hermione is immersed in the next 
year's books, Charlie is mending dragon paraphernalia, Percy is pontificating 
about the Ministry's problems, etc.  Bill and Ron are playing chess together, 
something that always struck me as significant about their relationship.  All 
could be viewed as signs that Bill plays a mentoring role for Percy and Ron - 
the kind of mentoring that I think Ron would have benefited receiving from 
Percy.  Moreover, whatever skeletons might be lurking in the Weasley family 
past (and I'm a believer that there's something there, Bill is old enough to 
remember them.  Thus, he's outside whatever, if anything, is plaguing the 
family's memories.  Finally, but perhaps most importantly, Bill demonstrates 
his loyalties when he immediately steps forward at the end of GoF when 
Dumbledore needs to round up support at the Ministry.  I think Bill could 
play an important role in future books in nudging one or the other of Percy 
or Ron at some critical moment, and I'd like to see more development of him 
in the future.

Debbie, who's decided to keep the C.R.A.B. badge if Cindy doesn't want it, 
and add a P.I.N.E. badge for good measure

















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