[HPforGrownups] Re: What JKR Finds Important

[Kethryn]

No: HPFGUIDX 116035

Antosha wrote :
" Harry IS emotional in the first four books--very emotional."

Del replies :

<snip>

About OoP. Antosha, you explain very clearly why Harry should indeed
be disturbed. My only problem is that Harry *starts the book* already
disturbed ! He was NOT disturbed at the end of GoF, we had no sign
that he was going to change so dramatically. And then we start OoP
barely a month later, and suddenly Harry is being unfair to his
friends, he's bullying Dudley, and he's being generally extremely
moody and bad-tempered. This is not necessarily unrealistic, but it
prevented me from getting into the book, because I felt it wasn't the
same Harry anymore. It wasn't the Harry I left in GoF.

I would have loved it if End-of-GoF!Harry had *evolved* into
Angry!Harry throughout the first chapters of OoP. I would have
followed him through the transformation, sharing his annoyance at
being mistreated more and more. But I was given no such chance. Right
from the beginning, Harry's temper is boiling and he's over-reacting
to everything. I never got to jump into his head, and things only got
worse as the pages went by.

As I said in another post, this was *my* problem, I'm aware of that.
But it does seem like I wasn't the only one having that problem (makes
sense : I'm not *that* special ;-)

Del

Kethryn now -

The Harry that we left at the end of GoF was still in shock and, to a good bit, denial.  Not denial as in 'I don't believe what I saw' but denial as in 'I am not ready to deal with this on any level' denial.  Harry might have talked to Ron and Hermione about Cedric and Voldemort but, by the end of GoF, he was just starting to come out of it on the ride home.  To me, his progression from shock and denial melded into anger rather seamlessly between the two books, especially since I tend to have rather lightening changes in my emotions as well.  So, we go from "shocky and in denial" Harry to "really angry at the world" Harry in a matter of an offscreen month or so...not that big a leap for me to make considering the circumstances we can infer from previous encounters with the Dursleys regarding his home life.  And no one likes to be kept in the dark and fed a lotta ....

So, I don't think that Harry was overreacting.  Well, he was, but that is an adult judgement.  Coming from someone who used to be the Drama Queen (and still is, to some extent), Harry's behavoir is almost placid compared to some of the stunts I pulled and, to my everlasting shame, still do to this day.  Of course, the last really major temper tantrum I had ended with me having to crawl around the bar looking for my wedding ring.  I guess I empathize with Harry because of how close we are personality wise (odd since I am a girl *G*) but, god knows, if we had to live with each other, it would be WWIII in the house.

Kethryn





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