[HPforGrownups] Re: Harry : compassion vs saving-people thing

[Lady Macbeth]

No: HPFGUIDX 114873

Annemehr:

But what about Hannah's point about Harry's upbringing?  What sorts of
things do you imagine *Harry* was told as a toddler?  Or Dudley, for   that
matter?  At primary school, where Harry had no friends, there was   still no
opportunity to learn social interaction, let alone develop  any fledgling
insights into the feelings of others. Dudley and the   gang kept him
isolated there.

After starting Hogwarts, Harry is playing catch-up as far as learning   how
to deal with others. Just *sharing* some treats with a friend   during his
first ride on the Hogwarts Express was an entirely novel   experience for
him, after all.

Lady Macbeth replies:

THANK YOU.  I had read Hannah's point about Harry's upbringing, but it was
increasingly being ignored in this thread.  That's why I pointed out again
that he is FAR BEHIND his peers in learning and using compassion - thus,
even though he has moments of it, it is not what primarily motivates him.
He is still running primarily off of his learned understanding of "right"
and "wrong" - that's why he tends to see people two-dimensionally as well.
McGonagall's all good, Snape's all bad, Sirius is all awesome, Hermione's
all bookish, etc - no matter what any of them do to suggest otherwise.  When
Sirius lashes out at Kreacher, it's obviously Kreacher's fault.  When Snape
does something seemingly nice or responsible, it's because Dumbledore told
him to, when McGonagall's snippy with someone, it's that someone's fault.

I expect that over the course of the next couple of books, Harry's 2-D world
is going to be shaken very violently, and he's going to be forced to do this
"catch-up" in a very short amount of time.  That's why it's important that
instead of defending Harry's behavior it simply be UNDERSTOOD - because I
think fans are going to be in for a radical change in him before all is said
and done.  The "angry teenager" of OotP is just the tip of the iceberg.

-Lady Macbeth


No more bounces!
No limits on mailbox size or attachments
Check mail from your desktop (IMAP or POP3), from the web, or with your cell phone!
Better than YahooPlus, Hotmail, or Gmail!

http://www.unlimited-mail.com

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]