Theoretical boundaries / Dursleys' abuse

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 120378


Ms. Luna wrote: 
"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..."

Del replies:
I disagree, in that the books are not seen through Harry's eyes, but
through the narrator's eyes, who is NOT Harry.

For example, in PS/SS, the narrator presents most of the abuse Harry
is going through as *funny*, something that Harry would definitely not
do! Harry might not be aware he's being abused, but there's no way he
can find his childhood amusing.

The narrator is NOT Harry, and he is not a child either at the
beginning of the series. The way he describes the Dursleys for example
shows quite clearly that he is an adult with an understanding of
middle-class snobbery, something a child of 11 would barely start to
be aware of.

Ms. Luna wrote:
" Harry is also learning through his new experiences outside of the
Dursley home that the treatment he received at the Dursleys' was abusive."

Del replies:
*Harry* is learning that, but the *narrator* knew it all along. Proof
is : he picked out the abusive episodes in Harry's childhood,
something Harry himself would probably have been quite unable to do,
if as you suggest he was barely aware he was being abused.

Ms Luna wrote:
"Remember we are seeing the abuse through Harry's eyes, and his
perceptions are changing as he learns and experiences more.  "

Del replies:
No, we are most definitely not seeing Harry's abuse through Harry's
eyes. In fact, if there was ONE thing in the entire books that we can
be sure we are NOT seeing through Harry's eyes, it's the abuse the
Dursleys imposed on him, because this abuse is often presented as
funny, when for Harry it is not.

Ms. Luna wrote:
"Again, through Harry's eyes....as he grows and changes and learns,
things do become more serious and tragic..."

Del replies:
Harry is changing and that's normal. What highly disconcerting for me,
though, is that the *narrator* is changing as well. The narrator of
OoP is not the same narrator that told us the story of PS/SS. He
changed in the meantime, became more involved with Harry. He now
identifies much more strongly with Harry than he did back in the first
books. IMO only of course.

Ms. Luna wrote:
"teenagers ARE emotionally charged and are hard to read"

Del replies:
Abuse is emotionally charged and should be hard to read. And yet in
the first books, the Dursley abuse was singularly non-emotionally
charged and very easy and funny to read.

It's not the subject : it's the way it's presented. It's not Harry,
it's the narrator.

Del