How dim is Harry? - Abuse and Oppression.

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 98671

Kneasy wrote: 
<snip>
Not to ask, not to look in the books may be a
useful plot device but it is not believable.
 
It's not a question of what you or I would do, it's a question
of what anyone with a pulse would do. They'd ask.

Siriusly Snapey Susan responded:
What IS left, then, Kneasy, besides "a useful plot device"??  If 
it's not believable that Harry wouldn't ask, because anyone with a 
pulse would ask--even someone whose nature seems to be reticent when 
it comes to asking question--then what are we to do?  Think Harry is 
a dolt?  I don't think so.
 
It *is* a plot device, imho.  JKR shows us enough times where Harry 
is told not to ask, where he finally screws up the courage to ask DD 
and is rebuffed, where people like Molly step in & say, "That's 
enough," ... that we are simply to accept that Harry's just learned 
it's best to keep quiet.  That gives her the "space" to take her 
time answering the questions.  
<snip>
I think she *had* to write Harry this way if she's going to hide the 
mystery for 7 books.


Carol:
If we look at OoP, we can see that Harry does want to ask
questions--but not about his family. What concerns him now, after the
events in the graveyard, is Voldemort and the coming war. He wants to
ask Mrs. Figg, or anyone connected with the Order, what's going on and
why he's being kept in the dark. Later, it's these kinds of questions
that he wants to ask Sirius. And once those are answered (sort of),
his chief concern is his hearing--and then it's time to return to school.

It isn't that he doesn't care about his parents, but they're at the
back of his mind, buried by more immediate concerns. Also there's the
point b_boy touched on--When Mad Eye shows Harry the photo of the
former Order members, Harry is upset rather than curious. He doesn't
want to think about all those happy people, many of them young, about
to be murdered or tortured into insanity. I don't think it's a matter
of having been taught not to ask questions, although that did play a
part in earlier books. He doesn't *want* to ask questions, at least
about what happened at Godric's Hollow, because everything he finds
out is horrible.

He *does* ask questions about the Pensieve incident (though again,
Sirius doesn't give very satisfactory answers, at least from my
perspective). But I think he heard more than enough about the events
leading up to Godric's Hollow for his own satisfaction during the
eavesdropping session at the Three Broomsticks (if he substitutes
Peter for Sirius as "the murderin' traitor"). Our satisfaction is
another matter--but our parents weren't murdered there, and we haven't
had to deal with Dementors who forced us to relive what little we
remembered of those terrible moments. And to ask, say, "What was my
Mum like?" would just be to know what he had missed--at a time when
fathers and father figures are more important to him than mothers and
mother figures, anyway. Like it or not, he would be cutting the apron
strings now, or trying to, just as the Weasley boys (except possibly
Ron) are doing.

BTW, Harry has already asked some of the questions most of us want
answered about Snape--and he's been told that the answers are between
Snape and Dumbledore--in other words, none of his business--and, for
the time being, none of ours, either.

Anyway, that's my take on the matter. It isn't that Harry was abused
and is afraid to ask questions. It's that the answers to the questions
we want answered would torture him (or, in the case of Snape, ruin the
plot). So, yes, it's a plot device, but IMO, it's also believable.

Carol