The Beetle At Bay

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 112083

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "slgazit" <slgazit at s...> wrote:
 
> She is more mature and level headed but I disagree that she is the
> social/moral conscience in the trio - that one is Harry. Hermione 
is 
> my favorite person in the HP saga, but she is not too good at making
> moral judgements and lacks understanding of people's emotional
> motivations. She is good at problem solving when that could be 
reduced
> into a logical puzzle. Therefore she could figure out things like 
the
> basilisk, animmagus Rita, how to handle Harry in book 5, etc. but
> totally fails in things where the logical explanation just does not
> cut it (house elves, relationship with Ron, etc.). 
 
> I think Hermione downfall will eventually come from her deficiency 
in
> the spiritual/emotional sense compared to her intellectual 
brilliance.
> I am sure she'll use it as a learning opportunity though.

Marianne:
Yes, exactly my feelings. Hermione, as smart as she is, is still a 
kid.  She doesn't have the life experience of someone older.  She's 
still relatively new to the wizard world.  Her logical intelligence 
and her diligent studiousness are great qualities and have served her 
well.  But, these can also inhibit her understanding of other 
people's emotions. One small example from OoP:

When it's time for the kids to go back to school, Sirius goes into 
one of his moody spells. Hermione immediately interprets that as 
selfishness on Sirius' part because he won't have Harry around.  We 
have no evidence that this is indeed the case; we only have 
Hermione's pronouncement. She then softens that assessment a bit by 
saying that she thinks Sirius is very lonely. And then she 
immediately goes emotionally tone-deaf by assuming that, since other 
Order people will be around 12 Grimmauld Place, that everything 
should be fine and dandy.  It doesn't occur to her that a lonely 
person would perhaps welcome the presence of some people more than 
others.  I think she's right in sensing Sirius' loneliness, but I 
think she is jarringly wrong to assume that having any old, warm body 
around the house will alliviate that loneliness.  On the one hand, it 
does make logical sense - a person cut off from society for 12 years 
will be helped by any sort of contact with others.  But, on the other 
hand, that person might be better off if the people around him are 
people he cares about and trusts, and not just anyone who happens to 
need a place to sleep when in London.

Now, I don't want it to sound like I'm beating up on Hermione.  I do 
think she is a good person, and I think that she rarely, if ever, 
does something morally questionable to further her own ends.  She 
acts for what she perceives to be the greater good.  Maybe what she 
lacks is a certain sense of nuance, that things are not necessarily 
right or left, black or white, up or down, but, that there are 
gradations in people's actions and emotions that are not always 
logical or predictable.  This is the sort of understanding that comes 
with growing up, but, unfortunately Harry and Co. now face perilous 
times and will not have the luxury of growing up slowly in a 
relatively safe environment.  

Marianne