[HPforGrownups] Re: Prefects and points

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 106139


Arya wrote :
> we readers need to regain some perspective.  

Del replies :
Perspective ? But *you* are the one who can't detach yourself from
Harry ! You are at least as prejudiced in favour of Harry than I am in
favour of Ron. All you can see is Harry, Harry, Harry. I can see many
other people : Ron, Hermione, Neville, Draco, Lupin, and others, and
find them just as fascinating, interesting and for some of them heroic
as Harry, if not more. Just because JKR put the light on Harry and
Harry happens to play a role nobody else could play in the war (and
the war isn't everything) doesn't mean Harry is the only interesting
or heroic character, far from it !

Del

sherry now

Well, i've been trying to figure out a way to get into this discussion, and
del has brought up most of the points I want to make and argued them so
eloquently.  I'd like to add a little here.  JKR obviously wants the readers
to take an interest in other characters besides Harry.  If not, she wouldn't
make them so interesting.  She could make them boring somewhat featureless
people.  Instead, she gave us fun, brave, cowardly, malicious, tormented,
complex characters.  That's why there's always such interest in Snape and
Sirius, because they are complex and we know so little of them.  Sure, Harry
is the main character, but he couldn't have done any of the things he's done
without the others.  All have contributed to his deeds in some way.  That's
why they are in the books.  

I think Ron's willingness to enter the forest and go find the spiders was an
incredible act of bravery.  My worst fear happens to be fire--my dad was a
fire fighter while I was growing up--and I don't know if I'd be brave enough
to go into one to help a friend.  I hope I never have to make that choice.
Yet, though Ron was obviously terrified, he went.  Have we ever seen
Hermione have to make such a choice?  We don't really know what frightens
her beyond getting bad grades or failure.

I think it's possible that JKR  could be fooling us by trying to show Ron as
the side kick, humorous not so important person.  After all, if she truly
based him on her best friend, she is not going to have him be nothing but a
side kick.  If I even loosely based a character on my best friend, that
character would find its way, somehow.  I don't think Ron needs to be a
super hero--we already have that in Harry--but he needs and will find
himself, and the direction he needs to follow in life to find fulfillment.
Of course, he'll only be 17 at the end, but I think he's getting a good
start.  Prefect, Quidditch, and now, at last, all his brothers are out of
school, and he can be Ron, himself, not anybody's brother.

Sorry, I'm not making my feelings as clear as I'd like.  I like Harry.  But
I don't think that liking Harry means I can't like and support and hope for
good things in the lives of other characters.  I never read any book that
way, because the supporting cast can be just as interesting as the
protagonist.  And I agree with the comment Serenadust made with her
signature to her post:  Ron is Harry's favorite character.  For Harry right
now, his best friend is Ron, he depends on him and wants his companionship
and support, even more than Hermione's.  I don't want to be so quick to
throw away the first and best friend Harry ever had.  In fact, I should be
so lucky to have a friend like that!  Harry is fortunate to have two
extraordinary friends, and at least, he seems to appreciate that fact.

Sherry G