The Ginny Weasley Quotient

[Judy M. Ellis]

No: HPFGUIDX 44794

Lilac quoted Jessica: <snip>
> ...Ginny Weasley is a serious thorn in my side. She's the
> wild card. Right now, she's merely a caricature and
> that makes me extremely suspicious. 
> 
> Lilac responded:
> 
> <snip>...I've always been suspicious of why she played such a big 
role in COS, and then disappeared into the background again. When I 
read the series the first time, I kept looking for more development 
about Ginny from books 3 and 4, but to no avail. 
 
Jessica:
> <snip>
> GinnyÂ's just been too much giggly and blushing in the first
> four books to impress me much. In fact, she embodies
> all the stereotypical traits of femininity that I find
> highly irritating –– and of which Hermione represents
> an antithesis. GinnyÂ'Â's entire identity is woven around
> her schoolgirl crush on Harry. The only book in which
> she plays any importance, CoS, centers on how her
> seemingly all-consuming infatuation of Harry nearly
> topples the balance of the universe and leaves her in
> need of rescuing. Please. Does she do *anything* but
> sit around pining for Harry?"
> 
>Lilac: 
> Perhaps I donÂ't find her irritating because I remember an 11-14 
year old me who had crushes and blushed incessantly. But I grew out 
of it, and there is evidence she is growing out of this as well.
> 
> I understand we have many highly intelligent females on this list 
who relate completely with Hermione, and so it makes sense why Ginny 
is an irritation. But, what if you were judged for the rest of your 
life by how you were at 11, or how you were perceived to be by 
others? Isn't Dumbledore a firm believer in second chances (i.e. 
Snape)? I know I grew out of my 11-year-old Ginny-ness, became over-
the-top Hermione-ish in high school and college, and have settled 
into a nice balance between the two characters now. 
> 
> I just want to sum it up by saying that IÂ'm keeping an open mind 
concerning ships and character development, especially in 
underdeveloped characters such as Ginny. To borrow a phrase from 
Tolkien, my heart tells me that Ginny has some part to play yet, for 
good or ill, before the end. Because, as we know all too well, 
anything is possible in the Potterverse. 


Judy writes:
     There are several things that bother me about Ginny and none of 
them have to do with her blushing and giggling or her crush on 
Harry. As Lilac pointed out, some girls are just that way--and it's 
perfectly O.K.  I loved pink and giggled a lot too. That part of me 
is merged into who I am now.
     What bothers me about Ginny is her nearly total self-
absorbsion.  It is natural for young adolescents to strongly focus 
on themselves, but Ginny's is unnatural. When she is not being self-
absorbed, she is obscessing over Harry. JKR uses Tom Riddle's 
ranting soliloquy on how he managed to escape the diary to reveal 
information about Ginny Harry could not possibly have otherwise been 
privy to:  

"Little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me 
all her pitiful woes--how her brothers tease her, how she had to 
come to school in secondhand robes and how" -- Riddle's eyes 
glinted -- "how she didn't think the famous, good, great Harry 
Potter would ever like her..."  Cos Ch. 7.  Riddle also talks about 
her pouring out her deepest fears and her darkest secrets --her 
soul, which caused Riddle to grow stronger.

These sound like the normal things that would trouble an 11-year-old 
except for 'deepest fears'and 'darkest secrets.'  I don't know about 
anyone else, but my "darkest secrets" at age 11 were I liked a boy 
who sat two seats over and I'd started my cycle.  Even taking into 
consideration that Voldemort is the King of Melodrama, that 
statement seems strange.  Then consider her rescue:  We know that 
Harry was very dirty and covered in blood as well because JKR says 
so.  Harry runs over to her and attempts to revive her.  She is 
disoriented at first then tries to explain what had happened to her. 
She asks how he managed to kill the Basilisk, then cries about the 
possibility of being expelled, but she never once asks if he is hurt 
or manages a stammering thank you, even after she is safe with her 
parents and absolved. Don't you find that the least bit odd?  We 
next see her "perfectly happy" again.  Now, if she were so miserable 
as to have to write all her woes in Tom's diary,if she indeed told 
him that "no one understood her like him," she must be hiding 
something from her family and is just putting on a brave face.   I 
think something is very wrong with this picture. Self-absorbsion is 
ultimately self-destructive.  
    In Books 3 and 4 she is almost like a brooding shadow.  Perhaps 
Lilac can tell if we ever see her giggling merrily with her 
friends.  I only remember seeing her with Hermione or hovering 
around the fringes of the Trio. If she is the chatterbox Ron says 
she is, and brave enough to be sorted into Gryffindor, why not 
stammer, stumble and mumble her way through asking Harry to take her 
to the Yule Ball as Harry did Cho and Ron did Fleur?  After all, a 
Hufflepuff, who didn't even know Harry managed it. 
    In comparing Ginny to Lily, there seems to be one glaring 
difference:  Lily is open and giving.  We see it in PS/SS when she 
comes home from school happily showing her family what she'd 
learned, we see it very dramatically in her final sacrifice to save 
Harry.  Ginny, on the other hand, seems closed in despite the fact 
that she tries to comfort Ron when he was rejected by Fleur in 
GoF.   If JKR wanted to develop Ginny in the first four books beyond 
the sketch stage, there were a lot of ways she could have done it, 
even using Harry's POV.  There is a reason JKR is keeping a veil of 
mystery around her until Book 5 and I'm not convinced they are all 
good.
--Judy