Real characters

[Amy Z <lupinesque@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50182

Ebony's post, and more especially Eileen's follow-up trashing Ron 
*and* Harry, made me think about how we tend to chew up characters if 
they are less than perfect.  We're like the Donner Party at this 
point.  After two and a half years without fresh meat, we're reduced 
to cannibalism--not eating each other but munching on the characters 
we've got stashed in the hold.

So if you stick around here long enough, you will see each character 
ripped to shreds.  Hagrid isn't just a middling teacher who has a few 
too many now and then; he's a dangerously drunk abuser.  Lupin isn't 
just a man who really ought to face facts and face his past; he's a 
lying coward.  Ron isn't just a kid with a bit of a temper, a 
sarcastic tongue, and lazy study habits; he's stupid, mean, and 
incompetent.  Snape isn't just a mean sonofabitch; he should be 
reported to the Child Protective Services.  Colin isn't just a pain 
in the ass; he's a paparazzo who's going to drive Harry to a Di-like 
doom any moment.  Percy isn't just a bit uptight and full of himself; 
he's despicable.  Molly isn't just a bit overbearing; she's a 
terrible parent.  Hooch isn't just conveniently careless about 
letting first-years off the ground; she's a complete failure as a 
teacher.  People seldom feel prepared to take on Harry, but there are 
the few and the brave who'll even do that.

I'm not suggesting that we stop criticizing characters.  I am 
definitely of the interpretive school that looks at them as if they 
were real people and asks what we would think of them if we met them 
in real life (after we'd finished fainting from bliss, that is).  
That means being able to say frankly, if it's true, "If I were in 
class with someone like Hermione Granger I'd want to slap her."  

I do think, however, that JKR has created very nuanced characters.  
Some are caricatures, but most have complexity that makes it 
impossible to dismiss them utterly, even if on balance, we don't like 
them.  Heck, Elkins can make *Barty Crouch Jr.,* Death Eater, 
parricide, abductor of Moody, would-be murderer of Harry, exploiter 
of Neville, torturer of Cedric, and abuser of Draco (if that bothers 
you), sympathetic.  And yet sometimes we write about complex 
characters the way young readers talk about Hermione:  "She's so 
bossy," they say, and hate her, not noticing that there is a lot more 
to Hermione than that and that the author unquestionably intends her 
to be interesting, likeable, and admirable (if not perfect). 

I know I'm echoing what many have said when I say that I love most of 
these characters *because* they're imperfect.  Ron is a real kid, 
flawed and complex, which makes it possible to swallow his incredible 
courage and loyalty and believe that he could be that funny on such a 
consistent basis.  Harry is an unusually kind and balanced teenager, 
especially given his background, but he can be rude or insensitive at 
times.  Lupin is not an angel, just a good man who deludes himself 
and screws up and then feels like crap about it.  Even Dumbledore 
makes mistakes, as our scrap of OP suggests.

So I laugh at subjects like "Ron and Harry are Inconsiderate Idiots," 
and even write posts with such titles myself, but really, I get sad 
when we start to devour the characters who give us such wonderful 
images of ourselves and other real people we know.  Fortunately, a 
truckload of food arrives in five months.

Amy Z

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"Winky is having trouble adjusting, Harry 
Potter," squeaked Dobby confidentially.
           --HP and the Goblet of Fire
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