Ginny in GoF

[Amy Z <lupinesque@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52497

Penny wrote:

<<<Guys: It's not Ginny's crying that makes me think she's portrayed 
as younger than she is.  Not at all.  It really isn't.  What I said 
is that her characterization is consistently painting her as much 
younger than her chronological age is.  That little whiny girl on the 
platform --- I would have pegged her as 8 ...... *at most.*  I was as 
surprised as Harry to learn at the Burrow that she was starting at 
Hogwarts.  <g>  I really can't help but think that JKR either had a 
very odd picture of 10 yr old girls when she wrote that scene .....or 
she changed her mind about Ginny's age later.  She's also shown 
holding Molly's hand .......what .....as late as PoA?  Sorry, but I 
don't buy it.  I know I got lots of ("I'd still hold my mother's 
hand" responses the last time I brought that up ...... and all sorts 
of cultural arguments).  I still don't buy it.  That's a depiction of 
a much younger (and/or heavily smothered) child than she is.>>>  

and earlier:

<<<maybe she is just a plot device in CoS.  The fact that her 
character has received no further attention or development screams 
that loud & clear to me anyway. >>>

I was just listening to GF *again* (we need a new book, she says for 
the 500th time) and Ginny does get further attention and 
development.  No, I'm not talking about her slamming Harry and Ron in 
the Unexpected Task.  I'm just talking about her presence in the 
family.  She blushes when Harry grins at her, and then shows a 
complete lack of childishness, giggliness, or pointlessness.  She 
converses in an intelligent way like any member of the family:  joins 
Ron in explaining to Harry what Fred and George have been up to, 
pricks up her ears when Ron* starts to ask about Sirius, laughs at 
Bill and Charlie's antics, etc.  

I won't quote the entirety of "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes," but here's 
an experiment:  read that chapter as if GF were the first HP book you 
have ever read, and ask yourself at the end of the chapter whether 
one of the characters came across as a particularly undeveloped 
character, or as a particularly immature adolescent.  I don't see 
that happening at all here; Ginny seems like a perfectly normal 13-
year-old girl here.  Doesn't that show character development since 
the infantalized portrayal in the earlier books?

Amy

*who really is being dumb--he's saddled with plot expo, which I hope 
some firm hand will edit out of OP so we don't all go nuts.  It just 
goes ON and ON in GF.