Why did Harry get such a liking of Sirius to start with ?
iris_ft
iris_ft at yahoo.fr
Fri Aug 1 11:25:42 UTC 2003
No: HPFGUIDX 74624
- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "annemehr" <annemehr at y...> wrote:
I think, by the end of that long
> conversation in the Shack, that Harry could identify with Sirius
as
> having been betrayed right along with Harry and his family. What
> had happened that night had happened to Sirius as much as to
Harry.
> Add this to the fact that Lupin, while kind, always kept a bit
> distant, and the fact that Sirius was named Harry's godfather
(thus
> Lily and James singled Sirius out whether or not the position was
> only a title), and I can believe that Harry would be very likely
to
> have an "instant" attachment to Sirius. After all, we are talking
> about a boy who never had any family to call his own that he can
> remember.
>
> Annemehr
I agree with Annemehr about Harry's capacity to empathise (one of
his main qualities, one of his strongest powers IMO).
I `d like to add to her observation that Sirius is not only someone
Harry can easily identify with. He `s also someone Harry was waiting
for more or less consciously.
If you take the second chapter of Philosopher's Stone, you can read
at the end:
"When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some
unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened;
the Dursleys were his only family."
(UK paperback, p 27)
A psychologist would tell you that it's an example of what is
called "the family novel". Young children tend more or less
consciously to imagine that Mum and Dad are not their true parents.
It's a defence against all the prohibitions parents impose in order
to educate their children. It's a normal phase in learning. It helps
to accept the rules of social life. Children first tend to reject
their parents when they impose them rules they don't like ("I don't
love you anymore, you are not my mum anymore!"). So they invent a
story about "my parents are not my true parents. My true parents
wouldn't impose me those stupid rules. They love me but they are not
here, those two are only my guardians. And one day my true parents
will come and take me with them, and they'll let me do all that I
want, they will give me all that I want".
You can find this scheme in fairytales (Cinderella is a good
example), and maybe you remember your own fantasies of the same
kind. It's a normal phase of the growing up process. Then, as
children grow up, they accept the rules and the fact they have no
other parents.
JKR plays with that in her books, because she knows very well what
childhood is, what a human being is, and how fairytales and legends
work.
And she knows as well that "the family novel" is also tied with
Oedipus complex. This complex turns back when the child is in early
teens. Exactly like Harry in Prisoner of Azkaban. Sirius comes and
he automatically plays the part he has to play, because 13 years old
Harry needs it. He is "the unknown relation coming to take him away"
Harry was waiting for, consciously or not. The whole novel could be
read from a psychoanalytic point of view. It's a story about how a
boy starts beginning a man, about how he deals with the father
figure and assimilates this father figure's legacy. Harry likes
Sirius because he comes just in time to be an opposite of what a 13
years old boy dislikes consciously or not in father figure:
authority (Vernon Dursley, Snape), experience (Lupin, Dumbledore),
and weakness (Hagrid). Thanks to him, because of him, Harry manages
to create a Patronus, a stag (his father's Animagus form). The stag
bows to him at the end of the story: Harry Potter has gained the
right to succeed James Potter (That's the whole question of Oedipus
complex). How couldn't Harry be grateful towards Sirius, nor love
him for helping him to open his own wings? What can appear as
incoherence is in reality a very relevant picture of a teenage
boy.
There's
no incoherence in JKR's books. We only need keys to open doors, and
pieces to complete the puzzle.
Amicalement,
Iris, who discovered yesterday a wonderful Time Turner. Have a look
if you will:
http://www.guedelon.com/
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