Anatomy of a Rift

[abigailnus <abigailnus@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52045

First of all, bravo, Dicentra, on a thought-provoking and 
compelling argument.  I was all set to toss Jealous!Ron out 
the window and replace him with a new and improved 
Betrayed!Ron, but I'm afraid that I have one itsy-bitsy issue 
to raise before I declare myself sold.  Not so much an issue 
as a question, in fact, but a very important one.

What is the point?

What purpose is JKR serving by leading her readers by the 
hand to the conclusion of Jealous!Ron, but in reality writing 
text that supports Betrayed!Ron?  What narrative function 
does this device serve?

Dicentra wrote: 
> The cause of this disparity between what we initially think is true
> and what *is* true is JKR's narrator: a third-person limited narrator
> who for the most part sits inside Harry's head but occassionally flits
> off to narrate something outside of Harry's direct perception,  
> 
> Because the narrator is privy to Harry's perceptions, the narration
> itself is colored by Harry's interpretations; as has been stated often
> on this list, if it's not important to Harry, it usually doesn't get
> narrated.
> 
> However, there are a few things that happen around Harry that he fails
> to interpret correctly for the simple reason that he's Harry.  That's
> no excuse for us, though.  Sometimes we need to question Harry's
> evaluation of events to come to the truth.

I've most often seen this argument used when discussing Snape 
and Neville, characters about whom we expect to see (more) 
revelations.  The purpose of the dissonance between Harry's 
perception of these characters and the reality that a close 
reading reveals is therefore clear - JKR is laying the foundations, 
making sure that no one can accuse her of changing the 
characters to accomodate her plot.  In a recent discussion, 
someone quoted JKR as having said "the audience likes to be 
tricked, it doesn't like to be conned."  To change a character 
without warning (and I'm not talking about a deliberately 
concealed and massive change such as Sirius being innocent or 
Moody being evil) is to con the audience.  Dicentra has very 
astutely pointed out that in GoF, the audience is being tricked 
into the old bait-and-switch - we think we're getting 
Jealous!Ron, when in fact what we're seeing is Betrayed!Ron.   

So why bother?  The only possible way the trick could be
 justified would be if Harry and/or Ron were to learn the truth, 
but as Dicentra points out, neither of them do.  What is the 
importance of making the audience believe that Ron is prone 
to being jealous of Harry when in fact he simply doesn't want 
to be left behind? (By the way, that desire can also be referred 
to as jealousy.  The American Heritage dictionary also defines 
jealous as Fearful or wary of being supplanted; apprehensive 
of losing affection or position.  However, this is obviously not 
the kind of jealousy that Hermione and Harry perceive in Ron.)  
 
The reason that Jealous!Ron is so popular is that he paves the 
way for a future betrayal of Harry, fueled by jealousy.  
Obviously, Betrayed!Ron doesn't exist to counter that 
assumption, because the assumption wouldn't exist in the first 
place if it weren't for the GoF Rift.  Betrayed!Ron also couldn't 
possibly be preparation for a future revelation - we have no 
shortage of evidence of Harry's importance to Ron, so the 
revelation that Ron is jealous of his position as Harry's second 
is hardly earth-shattering and requires no subconcious 
introduction in canon. 

So what's the point?

No, really, I'm asking.  I have no idea what the answer is, and 
that's bugging me because Dicentra's argument makes a lot 
of sense.  So, any thoughts?

Abigail