Themes in OotP (was Re: Angry Harry in HBP?)

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 119876


HunterGreen:
> The whole situation was horrifically mismanaged. Harry all year is 
> having dreams/flashes of things that are ACTUALLY HAPPENING, and 
> one of his dreams saves Mr. Weasley's life. Now, after all this, 
> obviously if he has another dream he's not going to disregard it. I 
> don't understand why no adult came to Harry and told him what to do 
> if he had a vision. The solution was "teach Harry occulmency so he 
> doesn't have any more visions.", but there was no back-up plan. 
> (from what I understand of occulmency, I'm not even sure Harry 
> could block off his mind to implanted dreams from Voldemort, it 
> seems too different from the way Occ. is normally used). 
> I don't know if the whole thing was just a setup for Angry!Harry, a 
> setup for Sirius to die, or just a way to drag out the telling of 
> the prophecy one more book (from a literary sense it works better 
> at the end of OotP, but from a logical sense, it fits better at the 
> end of GoF). Personally, after reading OotP a second time, I think 
> of it as simply a transistional book. That its about Harry seeing 
> his place in the scheme of things and having to accept that.
 

SSSusan:
A nice analysis, Rebecca.  I especially like the points you're making 
here at the end -- that it's just ILLOGICAL for no adult to have sat 
Harry down over this issue of visions.  Heck, DD could have *written* 
to Harry about it, even if he feared being in the same room with 
him.  A letter from DD would have gotten Harry's attention, I'm sure 
of it.

A lot of OotP, I think, found the adults in Harry's life flat-out 
*uncomfortable* with things pertaining to Harry and VW2.  They knew 
more than he; they weren't comfortable, to varying degrees, with 
telling him things; they weren't sure how to reconcile his having 
proven himself to be mature & capable with his young age & their fear 
for his future.  It doesn't make their behaviors -- particularly 
their avoidance behaviors -- right or excusable, but I do think they 
may be fairly realistic behaviors for many people.  They know some 
awful stuff; they're worried; they don't want to burden the poor 
tyke.  Maybe they don't trust themselves to sit down & just chat with 
him because if he asks the wrong kind of question, they're going to 
feel bad about being evasive.  

It was WRONG to have behaved this way -- they could have at least 
TRIED spending time with him & talking, to see how it would go, but 
they didn't.  Now, any adult who's been dreading a conversation with 
a child or a question from a child will probably identify with their 
feelings, but at least a couple of them should have risen above it 
and showed Harry some real support and willingness to talk about at 
least some of the difficult stuff.  Or to be open about what couldn't 
be talked about.

Sirius & Lupin did a measure of this at 12 GP, I would argue, but it 
wasn't enough, nor consistent throughout the year, and as you note, 
it wasn't there at ALL after the Mr. Weasley vision.  There's no way 
a kid of 15, who thinks -- no, *knows* -- he just saved someone's 
life through his vision is going to just start working hard to stop 
having them without some kind of reasonable explanation from someone 
he trusts.

Huntergreen's questions & final point about why JKR wrote OotP this 
way are interesting.  Perhaps, as so many are saying, OotP just 
doesn't stand alone the way the other 4 are more capable of doing, 
and really functions more as a transitional book.

I enjoyed OotP, but I am pretty easily entertained [just call me 
shallow].  Yet I still see the validity of some of the complaints 
being put forth about OotP.  Would *all* of the adults really have 
been *this* stupid for a whole year?  Is that credible?

Siriusly Snapey Susan