/empathy/

[jodel at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 49203

Anne U wrote:


<<  Was Harry's childhood less lousy than Tom Riddle's? Hard to say whether 
it's worse to grow up in a Muggle orphanage than to spend almost every waking 
minute being tormented emotionally by the Dursleys. >>

Catlady responds;


I'm pretty sure that Harry had it worse. The Dursleys didn't *just* 
emotionally torment him: they skimped on his food and clothing, he couldn't 
have had much of a bed in his cupboard, if the parents didn't physically 
chastise him, Dudley did -- whatever horrors early twentieth century 
orphanages are blamed for, the Dursleys tried to provide the same.<<

The real difference is that Harry, unlike Tom, was not thrust into this kind 
of hostile environment from birth. He may have no consious memory of it, but 
he got the advantage of having had 15 months as a loved and wanted child, and 
acto everything I've ever read on the subject, that is likely to make a big 
difference on the development of the "self". Tom never knew anything but 
hostility, indifference and cool charity.

-JOdel