Is Harry feeling guilty for being alive ?

[garybec]

No: HPFGUIDX 117516


Del wrote:
Maybe Harry feels guilty for living, because he feels he  killed his 
parents who loved him, in order to live.

That would be the kind of reaction I would expect from an abused  
kid,
who learns some difficult things at a critical age. Harry grew up
being told that he was worthless, and then at age 11 he discovers   
that his parents died in a fight which he survived. It wouldn't seem
abnormal to me that he would cristalise all the guilt the Dursleys  
put on him on this particular event : "I am unworthy because I   
killed my parents". It's the kind of twisted conclusions kids often  
come to.

Becki responds: (some snipping involved here)
I agree with you Del, I think your dead on.  There is a mental 
disorder that some people get, survivors syndrome or something like 
that.  Usually, survivors of a car crash, or other catastrophe where 
there were deaths, and the surviving person feels guilty that he/she 
survived and not the others.

 Del cont.
 It would explain why he doesn't want to learn about his family (not
 just his parents by the way, but also his grandparents and all his
 extended family, and even his parents' friends) : because he doesn't
 want to remember that his parents died "because of him".
 
 It would explain why he doesn't try to learn more about himself :
 because he's afraid of what he might find (things that would somehow
 confirm that he killed his parents).

 It would explain where a part of his heroism comes from : because he
 feels like every other life is more important than his, since he
 shouldn't be alive anyway. In his mind, that would be a way of  
trying  to somehow atone for the sin of killing his parents.> 
 
Becki;
Also, to alleviate some of his survivors guilt, to make up for the 
deaths he feels responsible for, (parents, Cedric, Sirius).
Also it drives him to do the "saving people thingy", perhaps because 
he 
may feel that if that person died, that would be another one he 
would have to shoulder.

Del;
 The next question would be : why did JKR make him feel guilty to 
start with ? There could be many reasons, but I can think of 2 main 
ones.

 1. So that he doesn't ask questions she doesn't want answered yet.

 2. So that he starts saving people. 

Becki;
I think both answers apply, but most importantly, it has to be 2. 
Harry is the savior.