CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 13 (Detention with Dolores)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 91926

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pennylin" <pennylin at s...> 
wrote:

Penny:
> Hi everyone ---
> 
> Surfacing only briefly from lurkdom probably ...... but here to 
give the
> Chapter 13 summary and provide some questions for discussion.  :--)
> 

<heavily snipped>
 
> 6.  Was Harry wrong to fail to alert even one Hogwarts professor 
about what
> was going on with Umbridge's detentions?  He probably didn't know 
the extent
> of her power at that exact point in time, so it was more likely 
Harry's
> distrust of adults and authority figures (and dislike of "showing 
weakness")
> that prompted his decision to stoically bear his ordeal and stay 
silent.
> Even Ron thinks Harry's desire to avoid having Umbridge know that 
she "got
> to him" is ridiculous, as he urges him to report the incidents to 
McGonagall
> or Dumbledore.
> 

Geoff:
I would agree with much of what bboy_mn has written in a reply. I 
have commented on more than one occasion in the past about the 
wretched "boys don't cry" ethic which has been part of the upbringing 
of boys in the UK in the past. It is something which I have 
experienced personally, when I have felt the need to let my emotions 
hang out and have been constrained from doing so because of 
my "conditioning". When my mother died for example. I was so 
concerned about beong unable to let my feelings out that I confided 
in a teaching colleague (a woman) who was a great help in reaching a 
closure. Again, when my eldest son was born, there was a medical 
emergency when both he and my wife were in extreme danger and I found 
it so difficult to cope for that half hour or so until the crisis 
lessened.

This leads us on to cover up when something is going wrong or we feel 
we are showing ourselves to be a prize wimp or a nerd or we are being 
misused by someone like a teacher. We don't talk about it, we 
stoically sit on our hands, grit our teeth and just look for light at 
the end of the tunnel. I believe that Jo Rowling has got UK boys spot 
on, at least from my own experience of (some!) years ago.