Is Ginny's Sudden Personality Change Believeable?

[Antbee78]

No: HPFGUIDX 76102

>Buttercup <cathio2002 at y...> wrote:
> I'm wondering if Ginny's 180 degree personality change
> is plausible. She goes from being pretty much
> unnoticeable to being almost a female version of
> Harry. In reality, which I know fiction is not, it
> takes time for humans to change parts of their
> personality they want to improve. And the
> transformation is usually gradual and may take years.
> I think it would be quite hard for a timid person to
> all of a sudden be brassy. 
> 
> Obviously, JKR did this because of the role Ginny
> would be playing in the last books, and she couldn't
> do that with a wallpaper personality. Possibly,
> Ginny's going to (a) play an important role in the
> second war and/or (b) hook up with Harry, in which
> case he needs a stronger partner, more like his mother
> who wasn't afraid to stand up to his dad. 
> 
> Don't get me wrong. I like Ginny's improvement, but
> it's just not authentic. 
> 
> Before OOTP when I read posts hoping that Harry and
> Ginny would connect, I thought, "You gotta be kidding.
> She's not right for him." But now I can absolutely see
> them together and hope they do. She's very much like
> his mother (red hair, fearless). 

AntBee responded: 
Actually most of the signs were there for Ginny's personality 
already. It's just her feelings for Harry are what kept her from 
being herself around him, most of the time, so now that she has given 
up on him she can be herself.

In CoS, Ron does make it a point to tell Harry "know how weird it is 
for her to be ... shy"(Scholastic Paperback, CoS, p.40). This is 
because "she never shuts up normally (Scholastic Paperback, CoS, p. 
40). 

So being like the Twins, being a rebellious firecracker, having 
secrets from her family, and being resourceful were all there for 
Ginny before, but since she never was herself around Harry, it took 
longer for him to notice.

Here's a link to a good essay, on this subject that points everything 
out pre-OOtP, <http://userweb.nni.com/dusty/Ginny.html>. 

Buttercup wrote:
> I do have one problem with her though. She switches
> boyfriends a little too quickly for a girl of only
> fourteen years. One second it's Michael Corner, then 
> Dean Thomas (Cho seems to do the same, floating from
> boy to boy). By the time Harry and she get together,
> she'll have dated every available boy at Hogwarts.
> They're too young for this. 

AntBee responded:
Well, she was with Michael Corner for a year or more. Also, it's not 
really clear on whether she is now dating Dean Thomas or not, she 
just says that she's chose him. It could mean that they are in fact 
dating now. Or it could mean that she's chosen him to like after her 
break-up with Michael, but so far her and Dean are only friends or 
acquaintances. Or my belief was that she just said she had chosen 
Dean because it was her way with messing with Ron, who was being too 
overprotective of her. I mean besides Harry, Dean was a good choice 
to show that no matter who she goes out with, that due to Ron being 
the overprotective brother, he would find fault with anyone. This is 
because Ron should know Dean is an okay time from the five years, 
they've spent sharing the same dorm room together. So I think she was 
just joking to get Ron riled up.

-AntBee (Buzzing about.)