A Harry Failure

[maisaura2 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 58949

DrMM wrote:

> While others may disagree, I've always thought that Harry tends to be 
careless, reckless and just a touch arrogant.

>PS/SS: In the first book, Harry & Ron race into the bathroom to fight a 
troll. They both could have run off to find a teacher and explain what they saw 
but they rush in and fight it themselves. 
and
> And the thing that has always annoyed me -- knowing the location of the 
Chamber and after discovering what a completely incompetent person Lockheart was 
(which he already suspected), he and Ron didn't go ask another teacher for 
help. 
DrMM goes on to list other similar examples from the other books, such as 
Harry sneaking to Hogsmead when there is a killer after him, etc.

And Melody wrote: 
>You mean he is being a pre-teenage boy?  How novel.  :)  [A boy who is never]
fully punished for your careless actions and in fact be rewarded for your 
"rash" behavior and chivalrous acts of insanity, and also have groupies.  >>

Melody refutes points, point by point, then concludes:
<<I still am not sure Harry's failure will cause a death directly.  It seems 
so harsh and debilitating, but it would help him grow and focus more that is 
for sure?if it does not kill his spirit.>>

Still a newbie, this is my second post only.

First, in response to Dr. MM's examples of Harry's impetuous, arrogant, and 
reckless behavior, I mean no disrespect when I say that I think this is 
precisely Snape's view of it.  For those who are among the series' harshest critics, 
the same charge is leveled-- Harry flagrantly disregards rules that are in 
place for his safety and that of others.  Not only does Harry get away with "it" 
(whatever "it" may be), he is then rewarded and deemed heroic for his "bloody 
cheek."

Melody took one approach to Harry's defense, and I'll offer another.  The 
first time I read SS/PS, one of my first reactions was similar to Dr. MM:  "Why 
don't they go to Dumbledore?"  I had the same reaction with COS, "This is 
silly! These children see they are in over their heads, why don't they go to 
Dumbledore?"

That refrain stayed with me until my second or third re-read of those two 
books.  But, I think Melody hit on the response in observing, <<You mean he is 
being a pre-teenage boy?>>  Harry probably doesn't seek grown up intervention in 
part because from his pre-Hogwarts experience, adults are disinterested at 
best (school teachers, Mrs. Figg <eg>) or at worst, the enemy (Marge, Vernon and 
Petunia).  He's not a confiding sort.  Ron and Hermione have had more 
positive relationships with adults, one assumes, yet they join in Harry's secrecy as 
well. 

The conclusion I finally drew was that if **I** as an adult, were faced with 
these kinds of challenges and problems, I would seek the advice and assistance 
of others.  But would I have done the same thing as a know it all, seen it 
all, done it all pre-teen or teenager?  Probably not.  I think JKR is calling 
upon the very well founded idea that children and teens will seek help amongst 
themselves, rather than grown ups.  

The reasons for this mistrust are due, in part, I think just to the secret 
lives of children and the belief in their own invulnerability and righteousness. 
 I think the idea of children left to their own devices, running rampant and 
doing all manner of insane things is well founded in literature -- begin with 
Cat in the Hat, and go from there.  Huck, Becky, and Tom's adventures don't 
always end in a Lord of the Flies-esque kill the piggy sort of debacle, either.  
  

Reasons to mistrust adults are also set out in the books.  In SS/PS, when 
things get really dicey, they do try to go Dumbledore.  McGonagall rebuffs them, 
dismisses their concerns, tells them, in essence, they are just being silly 
children.  Her reaction reaffirms their fears in not seeking assistance -- they 
are belittled.  In COS, Harry and Ron believe (it seems) that Dumbledore and 
the other Professors do trust Lockhart -- Dumbledore did hire him, and don't 
Harry and Ron see the teachers order Lockhart to the Chamber? From Harry and 
Ron's point of view, the teachers are either (to paraphrase bluntly) dumb enough 
to be deluded by Lockhart, or uncaring enough to see he's a fraud and yet send 
him to rescue Ginny anyway.  (There is also, as Melody pointed out, the 
extreme urgency of the moment in the mind's of Ron and Harry).  

Phew, one last point.  I think that in POA and GoF we begin to see huge 
developments in Harry's character because he begins to look to others beyond R&H 
for assistance in his problems and escapades.  Going to Lupin for help with the 
Dementors is a huge step for him, I think.  And, he does begin to seek Sirius' 
help in GoF.  Interestingly, it is a charge of arrogant, self-reliance that 
Barty, Jr. qua Moody lays at Harry's feet.  Harry had the key to the 2nd task 
in his own bedroom, but, as Bart, Jr. points out, Harry was too arrogant to ask 
for assistance from others.  (And maybe too arrogant to ask for the help of a 
near-Squib like Neville?)

Coming back to failure, from Harry's point of view, I think he does feel 
dogged by failure.  Despite Dumbledore's words at the end of POA, Harry does 
believe he is responsible, in full or in part, for the servant's return to 
Voldemort, and hence for Voldemort's resurrection.  He felt very responsible for 
Cedric's death -- "I told him to take it" (or similar).  In book 5, I would not be 
at all surprised if we continue to see Harry wrestling with this guilt.

T.
The Good Mother Lizard


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