Why to Like and Not Like OoP

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 71081

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "iris_ft" <iris_ft at y...> wrote:
<snip>
> What is disturbing about Harry in this book is not his anger. It's 
> his silence. As many of you wrote already, he doesn't want to 
speak 
> of what happened in the graveyard, and he doesn't ask questions, 
> when he should logically do it.
> Instead of that, he bullies his cousin; he shout at his best 
> friends; he cut himself off from the rest of the crowd.
> It's a very risky business. OK, it's part of teenage behaviour. 
But 
> IMO, there's something more about it. Let's see:
> 
<snip examples of self-destructive behavior>
> 
> Here we are: isn't Harry suffering from masochism? How can we 
> explain, otherwise, his stubbornness in behaving in such a way 
he's 
> trapped into a kind of never ending suffering?
> It can be only my own point of view, but when I read the book, I 
had 
> the nauseating sensation that Harry didn't want the others to 
> comfort him, and that, on the contrary, he was desperately, 
fiercely 
> trying to punish himself.
> Look at how he behaves: he doesn't care about himself (he looks 
like 
> a tramp, he doesn't eat, he doesn't sleep), he often acts in such 
a 
> way he gets into trouble. How can we consider the way he always 
> provokes Prof. Umbridge? Isn't he looking for what follows, for 
> those ominous detentions, with the dark quill cutting his hand 
while 
> he's writing, always the same thing, "I must not tell lies"?
> There's all a process of self-destruction, of self-degradation 
that 
> appears in Harry's behaviour. 
> Why? Because, as JKR explains in the Christmas chapters, he feels 
> dirty.
> And the problem doesn't come only from Voldemort's attempts upon 
his 
> mind.
> It first comes from what Harry lived in the graveyard. Here, I'm 
not 
> telling you something new: I just refer to some previous post I 
> found last summer lurking through the archive. They are 
> titled "Perversion in the graveyard". They remind us what 
Voldemort, 
> taking Harry's blood, really did: he committed a rape.
> And IMO, what JKR depicts through Harry's behaviour all along 
OotP, 
> is the disorder such a terrible experience can breed into a mind. 
<snip>

Iris, what a wonderful post!  You put into words better than anyone 
so far what I was feeling about Harry.

By the way, I have also read the "Perversion in the Graveyard" 
thread and recommend post #40405 by Elkins as the best summary of 
it, for anyone who would be interested to read it.  It really may 
help to understand OoP; I know it clarified a lot of the horror of 
the graveyard scene for me.

Now, as I hate to see Harry go on like this, I do certainly hope he 
can begin to heal from all this, with the help of those closest to 
him!

Annemehr
who would rather see Harry dead than destroyed...  ;_;