Why did Harry get such a liking of Sirius to start with ?

[junediamanti]

No: HPFGUIDX 74698

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "iris_ft" <iris_ft at y...> wrote:
> 
>> 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

Great post!

Also - Sirius has been in prison for something he didn't do.  It 
seems possible that Harry also sees himself (Harry that is) ashaving 
been imprisoned for something he didn't do.  In short, they are both 
victims of injustice and have suffered in similar ways for years.

June