Ginny's attitude to Harry

[David <dfrankiswork@netscape.net>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52338

Penny quoted Pippin:
> <<<<As for Ginny knowing Harry beyond the superficial, how can 
she? 
> He's never given her the chance. We're privy to his inmost 
> thoughts, she's not.>>>>>>>>>

and replied
> 
> Don't you mean that *Rowling* hasn't given her the chance?  <eg>

I have to say I see it as Harry, myself.  It is one of the few ways 
that he irritates me as a character, how he manages to keep Ginny at 
a distance.  Her approach to him is not that of Colin Creevey (more 
on that below) and while he doesn't treat her with the brusqueness 
reserved for Colin, he does IMO shut her out.  He acquiesces in 
Ron's dismissal in POA and apparently does nothing to respond to her 
overtures such as the get-well card.
> 
Judy:
> 
>  She could have 
> learned plenty was she interested in who he was as a person.  From 
a 
> strictly canon point of view, Ginny doesn't see Harry as a three-
> dimensional human being.>>>>>>>

Penny:
> 
> I agree.  I think Ginny is still obsessed with "The Boy Who 
Lived."  She had *no* interest in Harry at the train station *until* 
she heard her brothers say that he was Harry Potter.  *Then* she 
wanted to go gawk at him.  After seeing him not once, not at all, 
again (except perhaps a brief glimpse when the Hogwarts Express 
returned with the students in June), she "talked about him all 
summer."  At the beginning of PoA, Harry reckons that Ginny refuses 
to look at him and is blushing because he saved her the previous 
year.  I just see no canon support for any change in Ginny's 
attitude -- there's no evidence that she does see him as he really 
is.

I think this is overstating it.  I'd say that the bookstore scene at 
the beginning of COS shows she has already begun to discern the real 
Harry: she berates Draco, not merely in order to be cute and spunky, 
but because she has appreciated that Harry does *not* like his 
fame.  You only have to compare Colin Creevey's attitude, which 
really is hero-worship, to see how she has moved already. (That 
Draco probably knows this perfectly well, too, is beside the 
point.)  Ginny's anger stems from an appreciation of Harry's real 
feelings.

It does make one wonder how we should interpret the testimony of 
Tom "Hagrid and the werewolf cubs" Riddle about Ginny.  It is Tom 
who is obsessed with Harry for all the wrong reasons - in his 
conversations with Ginny, he would be manipulating the topics 
towards the issues that interest him.  That would give him a one-
sided view of her feelings about Harry, and he would then want to 
further talk down anything - such as evidence of real feeling - that 
would motivate Harry to more determined action.  (I think Tom's 
whole dialogue with Harry is best understood as Tom being much 
weaker than he wants to appear to be: he is playing for time.)  
FWIW, he does offer confirmation that Harry largely ignores Ginny.
> 
> <<<Ginny has her cute and spunky moments.>>>>>
> 
> You're only barely able to use the plural form there, aren't you?  
I count exactly 2.  The moment in the bookshop in CoS and the pre-
Yule Ball scene in GoF.  Am I missing some cute & spunky Ginny 
moments?  

Well, Pippin usually also cites Ginny's resistance to Riddle.  Less 
cute but definitely spunky is burgling Harry's room.  What was 
involved in flushing away the diary we can't readily determine.

As far as later canon is concerned, I agree it is virtually silent - 
I would say suspiciously silent - on her developing attitude.  The 
internal reason (which chimes with the thematic development IMO) is 
Harry's lack of interest as POV character.  It is signalled that she 
is still interested in him in the pre-ball scene, and we are given 
no further indication of the nature of her interest.  It is a reader 
decision to assume that lack of data equates to lack of development.

David