Harry : compassion vs saving-people thing

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 114843


I've been thinking about that one for a while.

There seems to be a general agreement that Harry is very
compassionate. That has always troubled me, because I just don't see
that. What I see is what Hermione saw : Harry has a saving people thing.

Let's take a few examples.

In PS/SS, Harry doesn't care much when Hermione breaks down after
hearing Ron's hurtful comment about her. She doesn't show up for the
Halloween Feast, but so what ? He knows she's crying in the toilets,
but he doesn't care about going to get her and making her come to the
Feast. But then suddenly she's in danger of being killed by the Troll,
and *then* he cares.

In CoS, Harry doesn't care much about Ginny looking pale, sick and
troubled. She obviously wants to talk to someone, but Harry doesn't
care about getting her in a quiet place and asking her what's
bothering her. But then suddenly she's taken to the Chamber of
Secrets, and *then* he cares. But what does he care about, exactly ?
Does he care about Ron and Percy's obvious pain ? No. Does he care
about Ginny's emotional well-being after the ordeal is over ? No. The
*only* thing he cares about, and he tells us so, is that she might die.

Let's take another example in GoF. The Second Task. Harry gets to the
Merpeople town, and finds the hostages. He then decides to wait to
make sure they are all rescued. But *why* does he do that ? Does he
care about the people who would get hurt if Cho, Hermione and
Gabrielle died ? NO ! In fact, if he did think of them, he would
realise that there's no way the hostages are going to be let to die if
they are not rescued. DD made it very clear that he didn't want any
player in the TWT to die, so why would he allow *innocent* people who
never asked to be part of the show to die ?? But no Harry doesn't
think about that, he's only obsessed with one thing, and once again he
tells us so : "I don't want them to die !".

And finally let's skip to the end of OoP, and the infamous Sirius
dream. Harry wants to go to the DoM, but why ? Once again he tells us
so : he doesn't want Sirius to *die*. Sure, he's bothered by Sirius
being tortured, but this is not his *primary* concern. He doesn't want
to end Sirius's pain, he wants to prevent him from dying.

Oh, and let's not forget Luna. At the very end of OoP, when Harry
meets Luna and she tells him about people stealing her things, Harry
wants to help her. But one thing that always bothered me is that Luna
isn't expressing any feeling of pain, she's speaking very
matter-of-factly. So how could Harry's reaction be interpreted as
compassion (suffering with) ? It can't, because it's not. Harry is not
suffering for or with Luna, he's feeling *pity* for her, and that
prompts him to get into his saving-people mode again. He wants to
rescue Luna from her bad comrades. 

Those examples show IMO that Harry does not have an impressive dose of
compassion, but really a saving-people complex. I can understand where
that came from (starting with his parents dying), but it doesn't
change that fact. It is interesting, however, that OoP ends with 2
events that teach Harry that his saving-people thing is not
necessarily always a good thing. First, it ultimately leads to
Sirius's death. Second, Luna doesn't accept it.

I would also like to add a couple of examples of Harry not showing
compassion when he could (and should, IMO) have.

First, there's the Forbidden Forest incident in CoS. Ron is
arachnophobic, and yet Harry drags him in the FF in the pursuit of
spiders. They get bigger and bigger, and more and more numerous, and
yet Harry never suggests that either Ron goes back alone, or they go
back together and Harry comes back again alone. Ron is *terrified* ! I
was suffering so much for him that it made me quite mad at Harry.

Second example is in OoP, with Sirius. Sirius makes it very clear that
he enjoys Harry's company, that it is the only thing that brings some
light and joy in his miserable life. But when Sirius gives Harry a
safe and easy way to contact him, Harry refuses to use it ! And why ?
Because he doesn't want to risk Sirius taking risks by leaving
Grimmauld Place : his saving-people complex again. Instead of feeling
Sirius's pain and loneliness and doing something to relieve it, which
he would have done if he had felt compassion for Sirius, he chooses to
"save" Sirius.

What makes Harry save people is not compassion, it's his saving-people
complex, which not only is not based on compassion, but quite often
goes against what compassion would recommend.

Just my opinion, of course.

Del