OOP: Psychoanalyzed!Harry, Metathinking MWPP, what Neville sees (kinda long)

[Terry James]

No: HPFGUIDX 63705

Spoilers contained herein!








Just a side note: does Kingsley Shacklebolt remind anyone else of Laurence 
Thingy in The Matrix?  The guy whose sunglasses don't come with earpieces?

Re Bratty Harry--everybody who is complaining that Harry has "changed" so
much from the sweet little 11-year-old he was in SS needs to think back to
elementary psychology.  Harry wasn't sweet at all--he was repressed.

Coming from such a dysfunctional family, Harry learned to keep quiet,
not let anger or bitterness or much of anything at all show.  If he
had resentment, he learned to push it so far down that it would
never come out and endanger him.

Children from that kind of environment usually carry those behaviours
with them into new environments, even when the new setting seems "safe".
It often takes quite some time for these children to feel safe enough
to let some of these emotions out and to start misbehaving.  An adoptive
family will often feel bewildered when a child who's been perfectly
behaved for six months suddenly starts talking back and throwing
tantrums.  The child is just then feeling confident enough to express 
himself
and feel positive that he won't be mistreated or even thrown out of
the family.

Throughout the series Harry starts speaking up for himself and
letting out a bit of anger at a time, but usually by accident
(blowing up Aunt Marge in PoA).  Cedric's death comes at a time when
Harry is starting to feel secure enough in his friends to let them
know what he really thinks--I don't think it's coincidence, or just
puberty hormones, that Ron and Harry have their first big fight in GoF.
Before that Harry has not had enough confidence to provoke anger
from a friend.

So, Harry is starting to feel safe enough to "vent", and Cedric's death
blows the lid off his normal self-control, and by the end of OOP
he's got plenty to vent about.  It's significant that Dumbledore
is the one he blows up to: he's the one throughout the whole series
that has consistently been there to pick up the pieces, the only one
that Lord Thingy feared,and the one that Harry feels the safest with.

So, Harry has not really changed, nor have his teen-age hormones
gone completely crazy (although they definitely play a part).  Harry is
just acting out normal psychological behavior.

Now, re the Pensieve/Snape's worst memory.  Before everybody goes
haring off ranting about how horrible MWPP were (I know, too late),
let's think about this logically.  JKR has had all the characters
tell Harry that he's just like his dad when he does something
brave and unselfish, thus giving Harry and therefore the readers a
heroic image of him.  Snape insists that he wasn't really like this,
but Snape is a bitter old twit and we can ignore him.

In PoA we get a slightly different view of James.  There was that whole
Prank thing.  But...the Patronus comes to Harry's rescue and Harry feels
like he's had contact with his dad's memory and James is still a heroic
figure, although with strange undertones.

In GoF Harry actually meets a shadow of James, who comes to his rescue
against Voldy. Hard to imagine how Harry and the readers would not
be impressed, although Snape is still harping on Harry's arrogance, just
like his father's.

Now in OOP we have this sudden reversal of everything that we believed about
James.  Or do we?  When we look back, the clues were planted.  Snape
has been right about all the DADA teachers so far, even Lupin--he DID
turn out to be dangerous.  Why shouldn't Snape's view of James be
right? And there's the Prank.  Shouldn't that have revealed a
dark side to James (and there are those on this list who have been
insisting just that for quite a while).  So hasn't JKR given us the
clues we need to believe that MWPP were basically rotten?

Now, doesn't that in itself make you suspicious? We've had a major
reversal in all that we believed about MWPP. Dumbledore thought
James at least was worthwhile; he thought Lupin would make a good
teacher; and IIRC Madam Rosmerta in PoA thought Sirius was the last who
would go over to the Dark side. Are all those people wrong?  Or do
we have two books left for JKR to once again flip all our theories on
their heads and explain everything in a totally different way once
again?  I really doubt we've found the "real" characters of MWPP
so suddenly and completely that there will be nothing new for two more
books.

Moving on again--Neville and the thestrals.  Someone posted that during
SS Neville was crying about the monsters in the forest that no one
else could see.  (Don't remember that--must go re-read!)  Why doesn't
Neville say anything to anyone about them as they're pulling the
carriages?  I can see why Luna doesn't, she doesn't seem to
bother communicating information to others unless they ask for it.
Does Neville not realize that no one else can see them?  But surely
he hears people commenting on the horseless carriages; why doesn't he
ask questions then?

And a related question, if he saw them pulling the carriages, why is he
crying about them being in the forest?

Terry LJ (apologizing for the long post)

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