Theoretical boundaries / Dursleys' abuse

[ms_luna_knows]

No: HPFGUIDX 120372


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> Alla wrote:
> "Let's go back to the themes. First of all abuse and these dreaded 
> Dursleys. I am not really sure why people are saying that Rowling 
> suddenly introduced abuse as theme in OOP, while in my opinion the
> abuse was presented VERY consistently throught the books."
> 
> Del replies:
> I disagree. In the first books, the abuse is presented as something
> comical. In the last book, it's presented almost exclusively as
> something dark and sinister. This is not a consistent presentation.

Ms. Luna replies: 
We have to remember that the main character in the series is changing
and with that his perceptions change.  The first few books are seen 
through the eyes of a child the next few the child is becoming a 
teenager and with that he is seeing things through a teenager's eyes.   
And the perception of a teenager IS darker...

> Alla wrote:
> "I mean, sure, Dursleys looked much more caricature like in the
> earlier books,"
> 
> Del replies:
> Exactly! They were caricatures and then suddenly they are real.
> Inconsistent.

Ms. Luna again,
Harry is also learning through his new experiences outside of the Dursley 
home that the treatment he received at the Dursleys' was abusive.  He may 
have thought his treatment "normal" before he went to Hogwarts, because he 
didn't know differently.  Now he KNOWS it was not normal.  Remember we are 
seeing the abuse through Harry's eyes, and his perceptions are changing as 
he learns and experiences more.  

> Alla wrote:
> "BUT Harry's suffering was VERY real,"
> 
> Del replies:
> Harry's suffering was real, but it was never *presented* to us
> before as painful. The narrator told us about the abuse Harry 
> suffered, but he did it in a dismissive way, he always presented 
> it as a highly funny thing. And then suddenly he presents it in a
> very serious and tragic way. Inconsistent.

Ms. Luna:
Again, through Harry's eyes....as he grows and changes and learns,
things do become more serious and tragic...let's not forget those 
hormones that surge through a teenagers veins... that seem to make 
life surrounding a teen much more tragic (even the most normal of 
teenager's feel the "tragedy" in their lives).

Del:
> I think our main problem, though, is that HP is an uncomplete
> series. What we see as a change in tone might just be the next step 
> in the natural evolution in the overall tone of the whole series. The 
> tone of the series *has* grown darker with each book after all, but
> many readers (me first) still retained the overall pleasant tone of 
> the first book. Maybe by the time the series is complete, we will
> realise that the change of tone was natural? Though I still think it 
> wasn't handled very well in OoP.

Ms. Luna:
I completely agree that OoP was a hard and uncomfortable read, and
that Harry's angst was not handled as well as it could have been.  
But at the same time, having a teenager of my own in the house, I see 
from where JKR is coming from with the emotionally charged Harry....
teenagers ARE emotionally charged and are hard to read and think the 
entire world is against them.  But in Harry's case, a lot of that is 
"true" and he handles it as a hormone induced boy would....it's hard 
to read, and follow in some instances, but really true to "life'..IMHO