Ginny's development (was: SHIP: Harry and Hermione)

[hickengruendler]

No: HPFGUIDX 92371

 
<belijako at o...> wrote:

Hickengruendler:

First of all, I just want to emphasize, when I say, that I dislike 
Ginny, I mean Ginny as a book character, and especially her 
development. If I would met her as a real person, I would probably 
like her very much. I know that you didn't say anything like this, 
but I just wanted to emphasize it.
 
> 
> Berit replies:
> 
> When reading the HP books (and I have, several times over), I've 
> never found Ginny's rapid development i OoP "unconvincing". After 
> all, most of the HP story is written from Harry's point of view, 
and 
> until OoP the only thing he saw of Ginny was a blushing, very shy 
> girl. He hardly inter-acted with her (or her Hogwarts peers) at 
all. 
> How could he possibly have seen the "real" Ginny behind her crush?

Hickengruendler:

Yes, but this is not "Harry Potter's diary", but a fictional tale. I 
can fully understand, that the character Harry isn't able to see the 
real Ginny, because of her crush, but it is JK Rowling's job, to make 
Ginny's development believable to the reader, and in my case she 
failed. I normally think she's excellent in the characterisations of 
the books, and that's why the way Ginny's development was done, was a 
negative surprise for me. Harry also didn't see much of Neville in 
the previous books, yet there were some tidbits, that suggested to 
the reader, that Neville is more, than he seems. We see Neville 
standing up to Crabbe and Goyle and later to the trio, we see Neville 
trying to warn his friends, that Draco wanted to lure them in the 
trap, we see Neville admitting, that it was him, who lost the 
passwords. Snape is completely hated by Harry, yet there are parts in 
the books, where it shows, that the Potions Master does have a heart 
and isn't completely evil. Percy is Harry's least favourite Weasley 
(and with good reason), yet there are scenes, where it's clear, that 
he does care for his family. I didn't see such scenes with Ginny 
before OotP. She was q bit more outgoing in the Yule Ball scene, but 
this didn't come close with the Ginny from OotP, IMO.
 
>I totally believe Ron when he says "You don't know how weird it is 
for 
> her to be this shy, she never shuts up normally-" (CoS p. 35).
<snip>This is very much supported with the 
> little bits of information we get about Ginny in OoP: That she 
> secretly has been "borrowing" Fred and George's brooms for many 
> years, making them *mildly impressed* when they hear of it! 

Hickengruendler:
Yes, we were told a lot about how cool Ginny is. But there's one 
rule: "Show not tell". And in Ginny's case I think there was to much 
telling, and not enough showing. I have no doubts, that JKR planned 
this Ginny from the beginning, and that Ron's line in CoS was a hint 
to this, but I don't buy it, because I, the reader, never saw Ginny 
acting this way before OotP, while I did see, for example, Neville 
proving his bravery several times. I "saw" McGonagall being sarcastic 
towards Trelawney, and therefore her behaviour towards Umbridge seems 
logical for me. I also "saw" McGonagall showing some heart under the 
gruff exterior (for example when Hermione was petrified), therefore I 
had no problems to believe, that she felt sorry for Trelawney and 
wanted to help her, even though she normally doesn't like her much. 
The "borrowing" the twins broomsticks especially bothers me. A)This 
would have been an excellent opportunity, to show the reader 
something. Couldn't Harry have witnessed Ginny "borrowing" the 
broomsticks. B.) There were at least six Weasleys in the burrow. 
Arthur, Molly, Percy, Fred, George and Ron. And I should believe that 
none of them ever saw Ginny practicing or stealing the brooms? Once, 
yes. Maybe twice, or three times, but not always. That's not 
possible. They must at least have seen her flying. In this case, I 
even would have prefered, that Ginny has some special flying talent, 
like Harry, but no way she was able to train secretly all this 
years.   

It's just that I think Ginny went from one extreme, to the other. 
Well okay, she is at an age where people change very fast, but Harry 
not seeing her developping means, that the whole development happened 
offscreen. This is IMO not satisfying.

Hickengruendler