Harry : compassion vs saving-people thing

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 114926



> Del replies :
> First off, I'm sorry you had to re-read my original message.

Annemehr:
Not at all.  When I did re-read it, I saw that you'd said what you
meant all along -- but my natural (and cherished) Harry-defensiveness
kicked in and overshadowed it.  I really must learn to pay attention!

Del:
> Now, Harry's heroism. I believe it might be caused by several factors :
> 
> 1. Circumstances.<snip>
> 
> 2. Nature : <snip>
> 
> 3. "Nurture" : <snip>

Annemehr:
I found myself nodding along, for the most part. Beyond that, I'm
realising that we don't really know *what* Harry is feeling when he
decides to do these things, do we? We feel compassion for the victims
-- but Harry's actual feelings are never really given at that point,
although we can see he's alarmed.  Later we are told when he feels
fear, or fury, or determination, but at the moment of decision we are
left to fill in as we will.  Is JKR assuming we'll read it as
compassion, I wonder (as she assumed we'd know Harry gave birthday
presents to his friends)?

Del: 
> However, it is one thing to want to save people (either literally or
> figuratively) and another to share their pain. Harry doesn't want
> people to die, because life is his own most precious possession. But
> he cannot and doesn't want to deal with people's feelings, because he
> doesn't even know how to deal with his own. In fact, like many
> teenagers, he is barely aware of the emotions that rule him, and he's
> even more oblivious of the fact that he can master those emotions. So
> how and why could he relate to other people's emotions, and how could
> he help them deal with them ?
> 
> Did I answer your questions satisfactorily ?
> 
> Del

Annemehr:
YES!  Beautifully!  And it sounds as though that's one of the purposes
of OoP -- to make that plain.

And...
I have one more thought to explore, which that last paragraph of yours
is suggesting to me. It has to do with the difference in the way he
feels during a regular day and how he feels when someone's in peril. 
Day to day, as you say, Harry seems to get along pretty normally, with
flashes of empathy and moments of callousness.  But perhaps, because
of Harry's nature and history, when someone's in peril, Harry has an
overload of identification with the victim(s) which shows up, maybe
not as compassion, but as an urgent need to MAKE IT STOP!  Sort of a
transferred defensive reaction to help Harry *not* have to suffer with
the victims?  Which was just fine in PS/SS and CoS, but which made it
difficult for him to listen to Hermione's voice of reason in OoP.

If that's how it is, I give Harry credit for listening to Hermione as
much as he did, and trying to check if Sirius had gone out, all the
while reminding Hermione that "Sirius is being tortured *right now!*"
(okay, twice).  And, yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing how he learns
to master himself, and JKR told us he would.

Annemehr
not at all sure this was clear