The Twins and the Prize Money

[serenadust]

No: HPFGUIDX 59717

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Jesta Hijinx" 
<jestahijinx at h...> wrote:

<snip>

> I agree with the last about finding an avenue to provide without 
hurting 
> pride; and I know this is what canon says.  Thanks for that last 
sentence, 
> Lynn.  I'm not picking on you in particular when I say this next, 
because I 
> think your response was, if anything, a little more balanced, 
reasoned and 
> fair than many.  But I've just had to wade through a bunch that I 
felt 
> obliquely attacked my values, which I express with some vigor WRT 
HP - and 
> I'd like to state that I hold firm to my values of believing in 
giving and 
> receiving charity and generosity with grace, offering the chance 
to the 
> souls of others to do good deeds, and I have no intention of 
relinquishing 
> them - with respect - to those of others who feel that pride is a 
virtue.  
> (I was raised that pride is rather the opposite, but that's just 
me.)  Even 
> if that's what JKR writes.  :-)  I'm keeping firmly in mind that 
it's a 
> textual device as we are discussing it here.


I don't think that any of the posters have intended to attack your 
personal values, obliquely or otherwise.  There's certainly nothing 
wrong with extending charity, and receiving it with grace, but there 
is something wrong with forcing said charity on someone you *know* 
will be offended by it.  

Whether we personally agree with them or not,  JKR has written Harry 
and Ron with certain traits and values that make them who they are.  
One of those traits happens to be pride.  Remember in GoF, when 
Harry refuses to take Cedric's advice concerning the egg 
because  "he didn't need that sort of rubbishy help -- not from 
someone who kept walking down corridors hand in hand with Cho, 
anyway."  Now, Harry needs this help from Cedric far more than Ron 
needs money from Harry, but he has far too much pride to accept it 
from a boy he resents.  

One of my personal favorite things about these books is that Harry 
and Ron really do understand one another very, very well.  Harry 
knows that Ron would refuse his charity, if offered, and he respects 
him for it because if their situations were reversed, he'd feel 
exactly the same way.  He would never dream of insulting him by 
directly forcing money on him or his family.

The reason the episode with Harry giving F&G the triwizard gold 
works is that: 1) Harry still "owes" them for the Marauders Map 
and 2) The money never really "belongs" to Harry in that he really 
doesn't want it and makes it clear that he's not keeping it under 
any circumstances.  I don't believe for a minute that Ron wants or 
would accept the gold from Harry, and Harry understands that.  
There's absolutely nothing in canon that indicates that Ron would 
even *want* Harry to offer it to him.  Giving it to the twins is an 
ideal solution for Harry.

Our own personal values have a lot to do with how we, as readers 
perceive canon (see Elkins interesting post about Affective 
Fallacies), but they are of no use in analyzing the behavior of the 
characters in the confines of the books.  It would be OOC for Harry 
to offer money directly to Ron and his family, and it would be out 
of character for Ron to accept it.

Jo Serenadust