Harry : compassion vs saving-people thing

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 114874



Hannah wrote:
"Is Harry compassionate?  I would agree that it's not a major
character trait of his.  But OTOH I don't think he's incompassionate.
 He can be thoughtless, and insensitive, but since he's very young, is
shown very little compassion by others, and has a lot to think about,
I think we can forgive him.  He does care about people, even if he
doesn't always know how to show it.  He'll get to be compassionate as
he grows up and becomes more emotionally mature."

Lady Macbeth replied :
" He's 15 going on 16 at the end of OotP - he should be MASTERING the
skills of compassion (developmentally) rather than just starting to
learn them.
Yes, he has a lot of other things to think about - but so do the other
characters.  Harry himself forgets that when he goes off about what he
sees as a flaw in one of them.  His irritation with Ron's complaints
about money, his anger at Percy's "betrayal", the absolute ANGER he
displayed toward Hermione when she even SUGGESTED he had a "saving
people thing" - those are just a few examples of his not considering
the background of the people he's talking to.  Yes, some of it he
doesn't know.  Some of it he has no experience with.  But a truly
compassionate person would take the time to get to know others,
instead of knowing what's on the surface of their personas."

Del comments :
Hannah, you've made me realise that I didn't explain one thing
sufficiently : I'm not blaming Harry !!

I was arguing against the opinion I've read many times on this board
that Harry is very compassionate. No, IMO, he's not very
compassionate. But this is not a crime ! He's got nothing to be
forgiven for. At least most of the time.

Most of the time, Harry is being a normal kind of teenager, the kind
that doesn't care much about the feelings of people he doesn't care
about in a particular way. There's nothing wrong with that, even
though I personally woudn't want to be his friend.

However, sometimes, and I agree completely with LadyMcBeth on that, he
truly becomes incompassionate, in that he refuses to care about the
feelings of the people close to him. Ron and Hermione, in particular.
He was quite odious to them in OoP. Anytime they did something he
didn't understand, he automatically jumped to the most offensive
possible conclusion. He'd already done that in previous books, but not
on such a long period. And that outburst at Hermione at the end, I
just can't swallow. In my book, you don't treat your friends like
that, especially friends who have followed you into mortal danger
without a second's hesitation several times before.

Hannah, you say he will become more compassionate as he grows up. I
agree, but I don't see that happening before several years. At the end
of OoP, he is still immature enough to put all the blame on Snape's
back. The only way I see him maturing rapidly is if he is *forced* to
do so, by a friend telling him clearly that they have a problem and
that they expect him to share their pain.

But then JKR knows Harry infinitely more than I do, so most probably
he will evolve in a completely different way :-)

Del