[HPforGrownups] Re: What JKR Finds Important

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 116208

Tonks wrote:

I mentioned this in another post some time back. Harry is acting 
this way because he has been through a traumatic situation. Leave 
out the fact that he is also a teenager and look just at the trauma 
that he has suffered. JKR has done an excellent job of portraying a 
person with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). All of the 
clinical signs are there. Hyper-vigilance, irritability, nightmares, 
and so on. The fact that this has also happened to a teenager with 
no social support at home makes it even worse. Harry is acting like 
many of us would if we had been through the same thing that he has. 
He feels guilty for Cedric's death, even if Dumbledore tells him not 
to. This is a VERY emotional time for him. That is what we are 
seeing here.  He is still the same good kid under it all, and in 
time he will heal.  Although he has had another tragic loss at the 
end of OOP. And again, he is probably feeling guilty.  He will 
probably be a mess in the opening of the next book too.  Or at least 
depressed from grief. I thing that one important thing that JKR is 
teaching here, is to show a teenager going through all of this and 
coping. Not well, but coping. No suicide here. She will show the 
teenagers of the world how to cope with trauma and loss.

Tonks_op

Sherry now:

Thanks, Tonks for that post.  What you stated above, about JKR showing teens
that it is possible to cope, is why I so adamantly and vehemently reject the
idea of Harry being so damaged by the end that he commits suicide or
something.  If he goes through all this and instead of surviving he crumbles
under the strain and ends it all, I feel that would be a terrible message to
teens who are struggling and already have such a high suicide rate.  I
considered that route in my teens, due to family trauma, but it isn't in my
nature to give up.  I'm too stubborn and determined to survive.  I think
Harry is also too determined to survive, and that having him kill himself
would be a cheap cop out, especially for teenagers.  I know that JKR is not
writing these books for anyone but herself, but it wouldn't seem to match
the other lessons she puts forth in the books.  Just my two cents.

Sherry G