Angry Harry in HBP?

[huntergreen_3]

No: HPFGUIDX 119701


Java wrote:
>> Harry being angry and arrogant is really my general
disappointment with ootp. I'm sure a lot of people have pointed out
Harry went from a quiet, mature, and happy boy and turned into a
whiny angry punk. I liked SS (and the movie version too) because
Harry was seeing things with positive, excited quietness which
represented his strength and maturity. And I thought that was
believeable and admirable even for a 11 year old. But in ootp, he is
just completely self-involved. 
[snip]
What I mean is, I
liked the boy because he was a positive character, he overcame all
that difficulty and still loved life and believed in goodness.<< 

HunterGreen (who has been away for awhile....darn Sims 2):
Its interesting that you were so put off by Harry's attitude in OotP, 
because it felt a lot realer to me than the way he was in other 
books. He seemed to survive everything a little *too* well, with no 
longterm affects (nightmares, depression, paranoia) no matter what 
happened to him. If he had reacted that way after GoF, it would have 
been just ridiculous in my opinion. 
I'm curious why you're calling his behavior "whiny" when he's 
certainly experienced something that would rattle any adult, when he 
was only 14 years old. After seeing another student killed, being 
tied to a tombstone by someone he saved the life of a year before, 
watching the person who murdered his parents come back to life (so to 
speak), he was tortured, barely made it back alive, and then was sent 
home only a short time later to live with three people who hate him 
and the only communication he has with anyone is just cryptic letters 
to "be good" and that "there's a lot going on, but we can't tell you 
what." On top of that he's having nightmares, everyone in his world 
thinks he's a liar, the person he looks up to (Dumbledore) isn't 
speaking to him, and there is of course the matter of Voldemort being 
back. Everyone has a breaking point. The fact that Harry was calmer 
and more accepting of the bad things in his life before underlines 
how horrible things have gotten that he's snapped in this way. And he 
has, that's what's going on with him in OotP, he had something really 
horrible happen to him and no one really did anything to get him 
through it. 

Java:
>> Well, when you're that arrogant, of course you'd
think the whole world is against you. It's probably normal for
teenagers, but for someone so determined like Harry to suddenly
change like that is indeed a shock. <<

HunterGreen:
As it should be. He was pushed over the edge. There's only so much 
someone can take with a smile on their face (not literally of course, 
I know Harry never walked around smiling all the time). Harry might 
be one of the few people who is justfied in thinking the world is 
against him, since a big part of it is. All the DE's are, of course, 
but the government who's supposed to be fighting them is against him 
too, and so is the (legitimate) media, and a chunk of his school. 
Even the people who aren't against him aren't really for him. The 
Order wants to keep him in the dark, Dumbledore won't even look at 
him, and at the beginning of the book his friends are making his 
situation worse by hinting at things they can't tell him. 
::sighs:: And as for the teenager thing, that's one of my biggest pet 
peeves with regards to OotP. I don't think his behavior is all that 
motivated by his age at all, an adult in that situation, treated that 
way, would have a hard time behaving much differently. If everyone 
around you is treating you like a child, that's the sort of behavior 
they're cultivating. In any case, it was closer to basic anger than 
childish in my opinion anyway.

Java:
>> Maybe I'm just too old, but do
15-year old actually worry about the power struggle between ministry
and school? I've graduated from school and started working already,
and still just kinda getting to know the whole office politics and
power struggle thing. Hermione must be extremely smart and wise to
figure that out all by herself at the tender age of 15.<<

HunterGreen:
In this case the going-ons of the government is directly affecting 
them. Harry is getting set up to be expelled, the entire population 
is being put at risk because the (previously uncaught) DEs are being 
allowed to run free and no one is trying to track down Voldemort; and 
of course the entire school has to suffer Umbridge. Different people 
take a different amount of interest in politics, and in the case of 
Ron, Hermione and Harry, they were right at the center of everything 
during their summer, so its understandable that they'd have more 
interest in the ministry than the average 15-year-old.

-HunterGreen (Rebecca)
PS. Welcome to the group Java. (o;