OOP Dumbledore(TOUGHLOVE)

[susanbones2003]

No: HPFGUIDX 65141

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jsmithqwert" 
<jsmithqwert at h...> wrote:
>> 
> As far as I am concerned, I think that Mrs. Weasley or any other 
> sympathetic "please cry on my shoulder" person would be precisely 
> wrong for Harry immediately after the incident.  The reaction of 
> others immediately after a highly emotional/traumatic event greatly 
> impact our impression of that event.  Not only does Harry need to 
> understand what has happened, as understanding is the key to 
> acceptance, but he also must learn to face tragedy and trauma 
without 
> falling apart.
> 
> Harry, as an individual, faces a lot.   Dumbledore himself admits 
> that Harry has had a more difficult time in school than any other 
> student that has ever come to Hogwarts.  Whats more, if the world 
is, 
> in the long term, to continue to exist in relative peace and 
> stability, Harry must succeed in "vanquishing" Voldemort.  Only an 
> emotionally strong, resolute, and relatively stoic person will be 
> able to endure the truly difficult road ahead.
> 
> Dumbledore cares deeply for Harry and understands children well.  
> Harry must develop secure and even emotions if he is to succeed.  
> Dumbledore knows this and, therefore, allowing Harry to wallow in 
his 
> own misery would not only have been counterproductive to Harry's 
> development, but also would have endangered all of Voldemort's 
> potential future victims.
> 
> One of Harry's key developmental issues, as Dumbledore admits, is 
> that adults "baby" him.  They must allow him to grow into manhood 
and 
> must allow him the responsibility that fate has dictated.  Failure 
to 
> tell Harry the truth has already brought him close to disaster.  
What 
> he needs is a little "tough love," which not only would teach him 
to 
> deal with his own problems rather than dumping them on the world, 
but 
> would also help him reign in his overwrought emotionalism.
> 
> Voldemort has been playing on Harry's childish emotional state all 
> year, the last thing that Dumbledore can do now is to allow Harry 
to 
> continue in that state.  I think that isolating Harry and forcing 
him 
> to deal with his emotions was the most effective method of dealing 
> with the problem.  Was it cold-hearted? Of course it was, but it 
was 
> also necessary, and I am confident that, given their current 
> development in the story, none of the other characters would have 
> taken that appropriate attitude with Harry.  He doesn't need a 
> friend . . . he has already got pleanty of those.  What he needs is 
a 
> mentor, and I belive that that is the position that J. K. Rowling 
is 
> putting Dumbledore in.


JenD writes:
I agree with you that Harry needed someone to help him grasp the 
situation without a lot of emotion, someone to help him get through 
everything that has happened, make sense of it and go on. And I don't 
want to see Harry wallow in anything. But I was uncommonly struck by 
the fact that Harry had no one, no person in this whole large set of 
well-wishers that he could confide his messed up, fragmented, jumbled 
feelings to. No one to pat him on the shoulder or hold him or even 
say "wow man, you've been through a lot." Some one said earlier, 
forgive me, that he was reduced to sitting in a bush crying. That is 
harsh man. Harsh. Is he such the superhero that he is no longer in 
need of human contact? That was so lacking in this book and I know 
there's a reason but I don't understand the reason. Does anyone know 
of a better reason than "Harry needs tough love?" I don't find that 
completely logical or at all satisfying. I'm sorry but for some 
reason, Molly doesn't even move him anymore. I don't completely 
understand that either. But JKR allowed no one to break through to 
his heart and demonstrate a connection. Showing up at the station was 
great but very public and very "surfacy." Is this the result of 
losing Sirius? That his heart is in cold storage?
JenD