Savior complex? (was "Harry and Tom")

[Matt]

No: HPFGUIDX 111431

Sorry to be catching up to this so late.  Anyhow, I wanted to put in
this much: I don't think that Harry's "savior" behavior is crazy, nor
do I think it is unduly immature.  Sure, Pippin, I'll give you that
Harry doesn't act like an adult.  He's *not* an adult yet.  Indeed,
part of the point Rowling is making (and the charm of the books) is
precisely that: maturity doesn't result strictly from the number of
life-threatening, emotionally-wrenching situations a child is put
through.  Ultimately, growing up takes time and a more rounded
experience.  Some may do it earlier; some later; but few have made it
there by 15 (or 16 or 17, for that matter).  

I wrote (in response to the comment that Harry's "saving people thing"
was psychologically bent):

> > [M]ost of the adventures in the books begin when Harry 
> > is put in a situation in which he feels that if he does 
> > not stick his neck out to help someone (or solve a 
> > problem), no one will.

Pippin responded: 

> Yes, but he keeps trying to do it in such ridiculously 
> extravagant ways. He's like Don Quixote. . . . [H]e
> keeps galloping off to tilt with the windmills, imagining 
> threats where none exist, while meantime the real ogres, 
> who mostly look just like you and me, go about their 
> business snickering in their sleeves at him. 
> [Example from Sorcerer's Stone, transposed to Coca-
> Cola factory.]
> It's excusable, because in PS/SS  Harry's an eleven year 
> old kid who thinks he's fallen into a fairy tale, and that 
> the world really is an arena for him to demonstrate his 
> heroism, but at almost sixteen, he really needs to stop 
> thinking like that.

Yes, he's 11, but more importantly he's been set up through the whole
book to believe that if he does nothing he'll be faced with the return
of Voldemort.  He's also not set up to think that his chances of
saving the stone are that hopeless.  I don't think Harry's trying to
play the hero for others; he's trying to solve the problem that's in
front of him.  

I guess what I'm saying is that the psychological set-up for Harry
works for me (not just in SS, but throughout the series, I can
understand why he does what he does).  And I think it works for a lot
of people -- ultimately, if the central character were not believable
(or if, to understand him, you had to think him crazy) these books
would not be as well-received as they are.  

No, we are not supposed to think that Harry is acting perfectly
rationally by the time he goes after Sirius.  But we are supposed to
be able to understand why he acts the way he does: He acts out of
love, out of incomplete information (and a distrust of those,
including Dumbledore, who have shut him off from that information),
and out of the terrible fear that, once again, he is the only one who
can (or will) help.  

--Matt