Harry and Detention with Dolores

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 91921

I have been reading with interest people's comment on whether Harry
was right or wrong in enduring Umbridge's detentions, and whether it
was believable behavior for a boy in that circumstances.

I think we need to remember that kids live in their own private world
that is run by their own private set of rules; the rules of the
playground, the Code of Youth. 

As an illustration of Harry's behavior, let me reference two examples
for real life; Catholic School and English/European Broarding Schools.

Anyone who has been to Catholic school know that physical punishment
is quite common, and in a sense, the daily routine become like a
little war between the Nuns and the boys. The boys will go to any
length, including risk of life and limb, to get one over on the Nuns,
and the Nun dispense ever more cruel and ever more frequent
punishments with each infraction.

According to the Code of the Playground, any boy who does not want to
spend the rest of his school years, and potentially the rest of his
life, being ridiculed makes a super-human effort to not flinch or in
anyway show pain even under the most severe punishment from the Nuns.
Sadly, many schoolboys are like predators, show the slightest sign of
weakness and they won't hesitate to attack. 

Plus, there is a matter of pride involved, in the war between the boys
and the Nuns, the boys swear in internal solumn oath that they will
never give the Nuns the satisfaction of knowing that their punishment
got to them. Very much the way Harry refused if give Umbridge the
satisfaction of knowing her punishents were effecting him.

In days gone by, based on movies I've seen, the English/European Boy's
 Boarding Schools were much the same way. In order to maintain
discipline in the school, the Prefects were given the power to punish
students. Being the sadistic power-hungry little demons that they are,
the punishment grew beyond that authorized by the school, and became a
sadistic ritual played out amoung the boys. A ritual involving ever
greater number and with substantially greater force, swats on the bum
with a cane; not a regular cane but a whipping cane usually bamboo or
willow. 

Again, the Code of the Playground, or in this case, the Code of Boy's
Boarding Schools said that you did not give the punisher the
satisfction of knowing they had the power to hurt you, so you used
ever fiber of will-power you had, and never let them see you flinch or
hear you cry out even under the most brutal assault.

Adding one additional example, would be American College fraternity
house initiation which, if not controlled and observed properly,
gradually escalate into sadistic demented hazing rituals. Ritual that
become so extreme that students have actually died in the process.
Again, if you want to pass the initiation, if you want to retain the
respect of your 'brothers', you do not let them see you flinch. You
endure whatever they dish out because the ethos of youth will not
allow otherwise.

Harry did a very common and typically 'boy' thing. He didn't go
running and crying to the headmaster, because he simply would not and
could not allow Umbridge to think that she was stronger than he was,
that her force of will was stronger than his, and he could not and
would not allow his fellow students to think he was a whimp.

Indeed this was a test of wills; Harry own private 'boy' war against
Umbridge. The same war that is fought on a daily basis between Nuns
and boys everywhere. Any boy who wants to retain the respect of his
peers and any sense of self-respect can never allow himself to appear
weak. 

Maybe you have to be a boy to understand these things, but what Harry
did is what any self-respecting school boy would have done; at least
what any boy would have done up until the not to distant past. Today,
a boy is more likely to go hire a lawyer and sue the school for a
small fortune.

Did Harry do the right thing? Absolutely not! As an adult, I see that
he did the worst possible things; but as some one who was once a boy,
I very clearly see and understand that he did the BOY thing. 

Just a few thoughts.

bboy_mn