Longbottom gum wrappers / Harry as Child Abuse Survivor

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 98545

There are too many deleted posts on this list today; it interferes
with reading posts on the website.

Rhonda wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/98537 :

<< I'm confused! What do gum wrappers have to do with Neville and the
Longbottoms? >>

If you didn't read OoP yet, this is a spoiler: our three protagonists
see Neville visiting his parents in the Severe Spell Damage ward at St
Mungo's. His mother, who supposedly can't even recognize him, gives
him a gum wrapper (Drooble's Best Blowing Gum) and Gran tells him to
throw it away, he's got enough of those to wallpaper his room already,
but he puts it in his pocket instead. There is widespread belief that
the gum wrappers are not just a pathetic touch, but a Clue as to how
to cure Neville's parents.

MC Schnoor wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/98519 :

<< Still, it strikes me as quite odd that, under the confines of his
emotionally and often physically abusive home life, we would end up
with a well-rounded character such as the Harry we all know and love
in books 1-4. >>

Thanks for the opportunity to trot out one of my favorite hobby-
horses, why Harry didn't grow up to be a resent-filled monster like
Tom Marvolo Riddle or completely spineless; despite "Don't ask
questions -- that was the first rule for a quiet life with the
Dursleys," he stands up to them even before he ever heard of wizards.
Examples:

"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able
to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have
a go on Dudley's computer).

"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly.
"It was flying."

The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in gray
water. "What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as
they always did if he dared to ask a question. "Your new school
uniform," she said. Harry looked in the bowl again. "Oh," he said, "I
didn't realize it had to be so wet."

"Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper. "Make
Harry get it." "Get the mail, Harry." "Make Dudley get it."

My explanation: 

I think Lily was able, with her magic, to put an image of herself in
her baby's mind, that would be like an 'imaginary mum' (by analogy
with 'imaginary friend') who would cuddle Harry and tell him that he's
a good kid who doesn't deserve Dursley abuse and tell him about how
decent people behave, thus being that one caring adult ("example of
goodness" in previous paragraph) said to be necessary to even a
'resilient' child's survival of serious abuse... I kind of think Lily
used her last magic to put this image in his head intentionally,
instead of using her last magic in one last attempt to escape
Voldemort. That is the heroic self-sacrifce that canon credits her,
accepting her own death because it was more important to her to give
this protection (from abusive Dursleys) of her love. I don't know why
she would do that if she really believed that he would be dead seconds
after she was, so I am left sympathetic to the theories that Harry
survived AK because of some magic that had been done on him
(presumably by Lily) or that he had been born with. 

When Harry resisted the Imperius Curse, the Curse's Moody-voice in his
head told him to jump up on the desk, and "another voice had awoken in
the back of his brain. Stupid to do, really, said the voice." I
believe that that other voice is what's left of the image-Lily after
all these years; she doesn't appear often, she appears as Harry's
voice instead of her own, but she still is caring for Harry -- and
still has free will.

In addition, so far we've always seen Harry wondering and trying to
find out about his father, and not about his mother. Some say that's a
plot device because JKR is saving some big surprise about Lily, and
some say it's normal because Harry is 11 to 14 so far, puberty and
adolescence, and much more concerned about a male image to identify
with. But *I* say that he doesn't search so much for Lily because,
unknown to himself, he already has her with him.