Reflections in a small mirror (Re: Chapter Discussions - Chapter One)

[iris_ft]

No: HPFGUIDX 68222

Hi, 

I was re-reading OoP this afternoon, focusing on the relationship 
between Harry and Sirius (poor Sirius
). And I think I may answer 
more or less one of the questions about chapter one. Maybe it has 
been debated yet; I didn't have the time to read all the messages 
about OoP, so if what follows is nothing you, don't put the blame on 
me.

Bluesqueak wrote:

"Order of the Phoenix Chapter One

Chapter Discussion Summary and Questions

This chapter starts with Harry hiding under a flowerbed, trying to 
hear the TV news without being seen. It establishes that Harry isn't 
a cute little boy any longer; he looks pinched and unhealthy, his 
jeans are dirty and the soles of his trainers flapping.

Is this a choice of Harry's? Previously his clothes have been 
secondhand and too big for him, but there was no mention of their 
being worn out or dirty."

I don't know if it's a choice of Harry's, but it makes him look like 
Sirius. Remember how Sirius looks and behaves in GoF: he wears worn 
robes, lives in a cave, i.e, in a dirty place, he's very skinny and 
he scavenges old newspapers in order to get some information about 
Voldemort and Wormtail. That's exactly what happens to Harry at the 
beginning of OoP.
He wears worn clothes, he lies on the earth, he looks ill, and he 
has to scavenge the dustbins if he wants to read a newspaper.
He's in the same position towards the wizarding world: he tries to 
know what's going on, but he has no mean to have a clear contact 
with it. 
Both Harry and Sirius are exile in this book.
It's for their own safety, but they don't accept it and suffer 
because they think it's unfair. They both are depressed, they both 
feel prisoner of their condition. They are like reflections of each 
other. 
I don't know if you ever noticed that JKR uses to build the first 
chapter of each book in such a way it contains more or less clearly 
all the main topics of the novel. In that case, she presents Harry 
as a marginal, just like his godfather. Then she goes on writing 
that Sirius seems to be the only one who is able to understand 
Harry. It's clear that Harry considers his godfather as a model, and 
that he is attracted to him. 
Did you notice how JKR describes Sirius in this book? He's a kind of 
a "dashing man with a sombre air", he's more than never a romantic 
figure.
>From his first very theatrical appearance in Grimmauld Place to 
his "graceful" death, not to mention the brilliant haughty student 
of the Pensieve sequence, Sirius never deserves his name better: he 
is the black star of the cast, and so he shines on Harry's mind. The 
appeal of the character in this book is not just a classical way of 
making his death look more unfair, it's above all a reflection of 
the relationship between him and Harry.
To Harry, Sirius is at the same time a father figure, a brother, a 
friend, and why not a teacher. He would be ready to stay with his 
godfather, for he believes he's the only one who understands him.
To Sirius, Harry is not only a godson; he's also a living picture of 
his best friend, as Molly Weasley notices at the beginning of the 
novel.
So that's why he gives him the small mirror he and James used when 
they were teenagers. This mirror is a summary of Sirius and James 
friendship: they were like spiritual twins. Sirius saw himself in 
James, and vice versa. That's probably what Sirius, consciously or 
not, would have tried to recreate with Harry, if he had been given 
the time. How human it is

It seems that Sirius (nor Snape, and Harry will probably have to 
solve that part of the problem) didn't manage to overpass his own 
adolescence, that in a sort of way he was still the fifteen year-old 
boy of the Pensieve. Mark of an egocentric temper? Consequence of 
twelve years in Azkaban? 
"It was just as though they had just entered the house of a dying 
person", JKR wrote at the beginning of chapter 4. Sirius was yet 
barely alive (JKR wrote something like that in PoA, when she 
portrayed him in the Shrieking Sack), because he was unable to 
progress, to forget or deal with the past. That's why he looks so 
reckless, so egocentric, as some listies wrote. But he is also so 
human, so plausible.                                     Logically 
he had to disappear from Harry's life, so the boy would have a 
chance of building his own life, of facing the future: when Harry 
looks into the small mirror saying "Sirius Black", he sees his own 
reflection, and only his own reflection.

He has "grown a lot in a short space of time", to come back to the 
very first chapter of OoP. He is "pinched and unhealthy" because of 
all the ordeals he had to suffer. He feels "worn and dirty", and the 
heroic illusion of the first year at Hogwarts seems now "baggy and 
faded".

That's true, «Harry isn't a cute little boy any longer». He's now a 
touching young man, and above all, a wonderful character.
                                                                     
  Nobody can deny after OoP that the HP series is a work of art.

Well, that's all. Forgive me if my post is a bit rough; I didn't 
have the time to take some notes while reading yet, so my quotes are 
not very precise.

Amicalement,

Iris