[HPforGrownups] Re: GoF- Harry's Dream about Riddle House (long)

[The Crashing Boar]

No: HPFGUIDX 77158


  From: Sue Porter 
  <<snip>>Me"
  What teenager in the history of man has been through puberty, family problems, wars or whatever without ever maiking a mistake? Without ever behaving badly? Name me one and I'll accept that JK was wrong in letting Harry behave badly. His problems dont excuse his behaviour, bad behaviour is bad behaviour whatever age and whatever the extenuating circumstances are.
  Even kids with the best support network do the wrong thing sometimes. They make mistakes, learn from them if they're lucky and move on. I have two teenage boys at home (16 and 13) and I know they dont always do the right thing, their reactions to things I find pretty innocuous, are often dramatic, and vice versa. Misinterpretation of intent and actions is a certainty. at times they feed on the injustice of just being a teenager. Its almost a rite of passage to becoming an adult. Sometimes they behave the way we
  would expect young adults to behave, and sometimes they dont. The two major differences I see between my boys and Harry, is that my boys have me, plus they are not expected to save the world.
  Sue
  _________________


  Which was the point I tried to make in the first place :) 

   Harry went through a lot, and expected to have the friendship, support and love of the people he knew when he returned to the WW.  What he found was that they had all been having 'fun and adventures' without him, and hidden it from him, to boot.  He doesn't act outraged or betrayed, and start making great overblown gestures - he knows that won't get him anywhere - but he is a little hurt and angry, and a little less trusting.  So he makes gestures by getting angry, keeping things to himself and telling lies to cover things up, after all, that is what everyone else is doing, right?  He gets angry over small things, but lets things like Umbridge's detention slide.  He misreads situations because hormonal changes are changing the way people are acting towards each other (like when he is upset that Cho wants to talk about Cedric, but can't understand why she should be upset that he has arranged to meet Hermione).  

  He is making mistakes, sometimes fueled by his hormones, and sometimes by the confusion of no longer being a child, but not an adult.  Afterwards, he feels guilty.  He needs to listen to advice, but finds it difficult to accept it from authority figures that he sees as flawed and/or treating him like a child, although he hasn't the experience to dispute them, and feels that maybe he can find a better way of his own to do things.  Most of the time, he just tries to get by. He can be obnoxious, stoic, brave, lazy, industrious and incredibley thick - all on the same day!

  So I stand by my original comment 'Just sounds like a normal teenager to me :)'
  Dawn




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