[HPforGrownups] Somethings not right

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 80770

On 14 Sep 2003 at 20:33, scooting2win wrote:

> It sent one heck of a message to me, and for little kids reading 
> this book as well. She basically is saying it's ok if someone hurts 
> you, you don't have to tell an adult, you don't have to tell anyone, 
> you can keep it a secret! Secrets are not good for small children to 
> keep. Especially if the secret includes someone hurting them, or 
> worse things then that. Maybe it's not what she intended but it's 
> there none the less. Lori

I came away with exactly the opposite impression, which is interesting. 
Harry could have told someone and chose not to, and because he didn't, 
he continued to suffer.

Maybe nothing would have happened if he had told someone - the way the 
Wizarding World seems to work, I wouldn't be at all surprised, this is a 
place where horsewhipping of pupils seems to be a legal possibility and 
where they were hung from chains in the (recent?) past - but I don't 
think there's a message there that you shouldn't tell someone.

Books can't *always* have their protagonists doing the smart thing - 
even if there would be a decent object lesson in it for their readers. 
When that happens, the book becomes nothing but an object lesson - there 
is a place for books like that but the Harry Potter books are far more 
than that.

If Harry had gone for help, he would have seemed to me to be acting 
*totally* out of character - he's not the type of kid who does that, 
even when it'd be the sensible thing. That's true to life. I was 
seriously abused at school (by other students, generally not by teachers 
- at least I don't think so - some people think I was because I went to 
a school with physical punishment, but I happen to agree with that in 
some cases - though not the Umbridge extent) and I *should* have told 
someone. My life would have been much easier if I *had* told someone. I 
know that now. I know what the sensible thing to do was. But I didn't do 
it. Kids do not always do the smart thing - and Harry is such a kid.

I think the Harry Potter books do have lessons for kids in them - but I 
think we make a serious mistake if we assume that every incident has to 
be a lesson in what kids should do. The books are not primers on what 
kids should do in certain circumstances.

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia