[HPforGrownups] Re: CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 22 - St. Mungo's Hospital

Wed Jul 7 04:50:35 UTC 2004

No: HPFGUIDX 104739

| From: hebridean_black_dragn
|
| Hee! Replying to my own message. Hardly surprising, though, since the
| reason I chose this chapter to summarize was the fact that it was one
| of the most emotionally trying chapters in the book for me . . . as
| you'll soon see.
|
| I'd like to address the questions: 1. "Do the adults (and Moody in
| particular) really care about Harry as a person, or do they mostly see
| him as a pawn in the fight against Voldemort?"
|
| and 2. "To what degree is Harry receiving (or *not* receiving) support
| from the adults in his life?"
|
| My answers are 1) they sure don't seem to care about him in this
| scene; and 2) not a whole heck of a lot.

[Lee]:
Agreed...and Moody's line about "the Potter kid"...As you say, definitely
cold.  I really think that to them he's 1) just a kid who needs taking care
of and 2) someone/thing Voldy can use so they've got to protect him and do
their duty.

Molly's being over-motherly for the most part, Moody doesn't have much
empathy, Lupin's trying but I think he feels bound by some orders as well as
trying to maintain a "peace-maker" role...all adding up to something vague
and not as supportive as Harry really needs.

[You continue]:
| While I was mostly disappointed with Moody, I also think that a great
| many of the adults in Harry's life "dropped out" on him in OoP. While
| I *was* disturbed by Harry's behaviour in OoP, in some ways it's hard
| for me to fault him too much, as he's going through some serious stuff
| in this book without a whole lot of support from the adults in his
| life. I think the eavesdropped conversation at the end of this chapter
| is a good illstration of this.

[Lee]:
Yes, Yes! And there are times when his peers aren't so "in his corner"
either.  Harry's sort of running the gauntlet alone in many places in the
book.

[Wendy continues]:
<Snip>
| Now, I realise that Moody and Harry haven't really spent much time
| together to form a relationship, and perhaps this sort of attitude is
| better for an Auror - to not get involved with people emotionally.
| Okay, okay, this may be true, but it just really hurt me to hear him
| talk about Harry like that, and to know that Harry was hearing it, too.
|
| I was also less than thrilled with Molly, who doesn't come to his
| defense when Moody says they *all* know there's something funny about
| Harry. In fact, her response almost makes me think that she agrees,
| but that since Dumbledore was worried about Harry, then perhaps *that*
| mitigates Harry's "funny-ness" somehow.

[Lee]:
I sorta read her response as trying to convey that maybe a bit of concern
for Harry's own emotional state after all this might be warranted, not just
worrying about Harry seeing things, as Moody put it, through the eyes of
You-Know-Who's snake.  Again, I think Molly is a bit more emotionally
oriented and, perhaps, might not know how to convey her concerns to
seemingly insensitive people.  However, I could be wrong and just hoping.
:-)

[Wendy again]:
| In any case, this scene really disturbed me. I was uncomfortable with
| the tone of the discussion about Harry, and I also had a lot of anger
| and sadness that Harry had to hear them talking about him in this way.
| Sure, they didn't know he was listening, but that doesn't make me feel
| any better about what they said. I actually had to put the book down
| after reading this so I could have a good cry about how DAMNED UNFAIR
| it was of all of them to treat Harry this way, when he'd never done
| anything to bring this upon himself. I was really angry and hurt on
| Harry's behalf.

[Lee]:
I hear ya.  I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, I used to do a lot
of extra-curricular listening. :-)  And it's amazing how parents can discuss
a child like an object or whatever.  I used to be annoyed but, at the same
time, fascinated at the things they talked about. :)

I will say that I really like Kingsley! He seemed to take a bit of time to
treat Harry kindly...interested in his flying, etc.  I don' know...I just
like Mr. Shacklebolt. :-)

Cheers,

Lee :-)

Do not walk behind me,    | Lee Storm
I may not care to lead;   | N2FGC
Do not walk before me;    | n2fgc at arrl.net (or)
I may not care to follow; | n2fgc at optonline.net
Walk beside me, and be my friend.