Ginny's invisibility (was :time to defend Ginny! )

[ssk7882 <skelkins@attbi.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52633


David wrote (of Ginny's lack of development):

> I think the starting point is that the series is a bildungsroman, 
> so Harry is developing. As part of that, JKR is bringing in themes 
> that tie in with Harry's increasing awareness and maturity. One of 
> those themes that has received very little exposure is the nature 
> of feminity and the role of the feminine in life. 

I agree with David, and I also see in GoF many signs that suggest to 
my mind that the feminine archetype which I see as represented by 
both Ginny and Lily is likely to take far more precedence in future 
volumes.  

As I read GoF, it is largely concerned with the developmental 
concerns of adolescence: separation from parental protections, 
rivalry with the negative or devouring paternal archetype, 
individuation.  It is also the volume in which Harry's libido first 
really starts coming into play as a motivating factor in his decision-
making (he is beginning to emerge from latency in PoA, but only just; 
it's really only in GoF that I start perceiving him as truly 
pubescent).

By the end of GoF, Harry has passed this hurdle.  He has lost the 
maternal protections of childhood, and he has been recognized by 
Dumbledore as having behaved admirably by the standards of the 
*adult,* not merely the schoolyard, world.  It is really only now 
that he is ready to start dealing with the feminine as a sexual or 
romantic force, as opposed to a maternal one.

It also seems to me significant that it is really only in GoF that we 
first begin to see eros set forth as a motivating factor for the 
adults *surrounding* Harry.  The Dursleys seem happily married in 
their own horrid way, but there is no tinge of romantic devotion in 
Harry's perception of them.  The same goes for Arthur and Molly pre-
GoF.  The adult characters of the Potterverse up until GoF seem to 
exist in a strangely sexless state, which I believe reflects Harry's 
own state of latency.  

That changes in Book Four.  In GoF, suddenly we begin to see signs 
not only that adults have sex lives, but that Harry is becoming aware 
of that fact.  We learn of Arthur and Molly's Hogwarts courtship.  
Hagrid develops a romantic interest on Madame Maxine.  Crouch's 
marital devotion to his wife is spoken of with envy and resentment by 
his son; it is a different *type* of love: "he loved her as he had 
never loved me."  Eros starts making its appearance in the adult 
world of the Potterverse just in time to coincide with Harry's entry 
into adolescence.  I agree with David in thinking that this is a 
reflection of Harry's maturing POV, as well as a reflection of the 
series' structure as a bildungsroman.  The Potterverse is a mirror; 
it reflects Harry's own developmental concerns.

I am neither seer nor prophet, and I make no claims to be any good at 
predicting JKR's intentions.  But I am expecting to see more of Ginny 
in OoP.  I am also expecting to learn more about Lily.  It does seem 
to me that on the thematic level, GoF has cleared the path for those 
plot developments to occur.


Elkins