Ginny's development

[David]

No: HPFGUIDX 72237

Arya wrote:

> I have heard this from others I have chatted with-- that Ginny just 
poped out of 
> nowhere with a fully more developed character.  My answer to this 
is that 
> these books are told from just over Harry's shoulder or in the back 
of his head, 
> if you will.  The narrative is from Harry sees.  

I'm sure this is true, but I don't believe it completely answers the 
charge that Ginny 'popped out of nowhere'.  JKR usually does a good 
job of putting in things that Harry sees but doesn't notice, so that 
the reader has a chance to pick up that which Harry misses.  Penny's 
charge is that JKR failed to do this in the case of Ginny.

It is clear that there is *some* truth in the 'Harry's POV' argument, 
as the discussion about boyfriends after the Hog's Head meeting makes 
clear.  There is also the point that Ginny is something of a special 
case, because her behaviour was such as to conceal much of her 
character from Harry.

Pre-OOP there were arguments that Ginny was an underdeveloped 
character: charging JKR with over-sudden development of Ginny is 
really just to re-hash those arguments.  Pippin has already offered 
the counter that the fandom's development of Ginny is largely 
consistent with OOP-Ginny, implying that there must have been more in 
the first four books than meets the eye (though an alternative 
argument here would be that JKR and the fandom are using the same 
stereotypes).

My own view is that 'underdevelopment' is not the same as 'no 
development' and that in fact, filtered through Harry's rather murky 
glasses, we do see the same person.

To try to move the debate on a little, can anyone identify pointers 
in OOP to those weaknesses of Ginny that *did* come across in the 
earlier books?

David