Generation Parallels

[Sydney]

No: HPFGUIDX 78687

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Donna" <deemarie1a at y...> wrote:

> 
> My thought is this...
> 
> Don't you think there is a nice balance to JKR's story.  I mean we 
> have the current trio; Harry, Ron, and Hermione.  Then there is the 
> trio of the past; James, Remus, and Sirius.  Draco is Harry's 
> nemisis, Snape was James.   There is Wormtail, the bumbler, and 
> Nevile, his modern counterpart.  
> 
> Can anyone think of anymore?  And how do these parallels relate to 
> the story?  Are there clues here as to what will happen?

I definitely agree that Rowling is doing SOMETHING with generational
parallels, but I think she's presenting it as a trap, rather than a guide.

In the books themselves, the temptation to parallel people almost
always leads the characters into trouble.  Harry trusted Riddle's
version of events in CoS because he identified with him as an orphan;
 in PoA Harry imagined Pettigrew as a nice-guy Neville figure.  Snape
constantly mis-interprets Harry's actions by assuming he is the same
as his father.  And I have a strong suspicion that a lot of Sirius'
attitude towards Snape came from projecting his younger brother
Regulus onto him.

In a way, I think this ties in with the whole theme of prejudice-- the
habit of pre-judging people by things that don't relate to them as an
individual.  This goes beyond race and class into all simplistic
systems of categorization-- the house system,  etc. etc.... I mean,
who hasn't had a relationship where you didn't project the traits of
the last lover onto the present one?

--Sydney (I definitely think Harry's going to end up with Ginny
though! ;) )