Harry Agonistes (was Re: Ever so evil ? was Dumbledore's role in Sirius' death

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 99182

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "nkafkafi" <nkafkafi at y...>
wrote:
 
> I already gained a lot from this discussion, just because I was 
> forced to put in words something that I always knew but never
thought 
> about. I didn't quite manage it yet, but another three or four
rounds 
> might do it. Or some forum member will just drop a three-lines post 
> that says it better than I'll ever be able to. But if it is 
> not "obvious" to you, then I'd like very much to know, do you think 
> that Harry is the "good hero" of HP, and if so, what is the key 
> quality that makes him so?
> 
> Or, to put it in Kneasy's words, did Harry become a Gryphindor and 
> not a Slytherin only because, after less than a day of
acquaintance, 
> he thought he likes Ron better than he likes Draco?
> 


 Canon is explicit about the reason Harry didn't like Draco--it's 
because Draco reminded him of Dudley. Harry's had a whole ten years
to learn what bullies are like. What's amazing is that he knew, 
somehow, that there was an alternative. It's hard to see how he could 
have learned that from experience--maybe it has to do with the same 
power that protected him as a baby. But it wouldn't have mattered if
he hadn't had the gumption to argue with the Hat. He's a Gryffindor 
because he asked not to be in Slytherin, even though for all he knew, 
the choice was Slytherin or nothing.So I would say the key difference 
between Harry and Tom was courage.

I think it's risky to try to predict what will happen based on our 
subjective impression of the story. Literary conventions exist
because authors copy one another. But JKR has a habit of setting 
convention on its ear. Snape in PS/SS follows the conventions of a 
literary villain: he picks fights with the hero, punishes Harry 
unfairly, his ugliness verges on ethnic stereotyping, he dresses in 
black, and favors Harry's enemy. On my first reading, I thought he
was way overdone, and I was surprised and delighted to discover he 
wasn't trying to steal the Stone after all.

Lupin also strikes me as overdone--in fact JKR admits to idealizing
him as a teacher. That raises a red flag with me, as does the fact
thathe has three times confessed to moral cowardice -- after he was
caught.  Harry pays no attention, even though Dumbledore and JKR have
emphasized that courage may mean taking a stand against your friends.
 
When Harry ignores something JKR thinks is important, watch out!


JKR has told us the stories will get darker, that Harry is going to
go through some miserable times. Readers, conditioned by the 
conventions of the fantasy epic and the horror genre, immediately
think in terms of corridors awash in blood and a body count in the
zillions. But both Hagrid and Sirius told us that the worst terrors of
Voldemort's reign were psychological. You couldn't tell who to trust.


Judging by the polls section, JKR is pretty good at flummoxing reader 
expectations. How many people thought Ron would be prefect or that 
Sirius would die in OOP? On the other hand, most people guessed who
the other Gryffindor prefect and Slytherin prefects would be. JKR
obeys convention just enough to seduce us into thinking we know what's
going to happen next. 

Pippin