Ginny's Role in Book 7 (was: Re: Four ponderings)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 144816

> >>Allie:
> I happen to really like Ginny, but I agree with what you're        
> saying. I thought it was a bit of a stretch when suddenly Ginny    
> was "the life and soul" of the Gryffindor Quidditch team in HBP.  
> Maybe JKR should have made it clearer early on in the series that 
> Ginny really WAS very outgoing, just not around Harry.  Shown her 
> interacting with other people or holding her own with the twins,  
> maybe.  
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Exactly!  That's where JKR really fell down, I think.  I once did a 
reread of the series (up to OotP) just to look at how Ginny was 
handled, and the character consitancy is just not there.  Not like 
it is with Neville or Draco (two other second string characters).  
Or at least, I think JKR started out well, but OotP Ginny was a bit 
of a jar.  And HBP Ginny comes out of almost nowhere, IMO.

[All page numbers reference scholastic editions.  PS and CoS are 
paperback, PoA and GoF are hardback.]

Ginny is introduced well in PS/SS, IMO.  She's bubbling with energy 
and curiosity, begging to be allowed to see the famous Harry Potter 
[97,308] , running after the train while simultaneously laughing and 
crying [98]. JKR's only got two scenes to give us an impression of 
Ginny's personality, and I think she gets off to a good start.

CoS is a bit of a trick because there's so little of the book that 
is actually the "real" Ginny.  But there's still some pretty good 
hints.  Ginny is in full crush mode, but she responds to Harry by 
becoming rather clutzy (putting her elbow in the butter dish) [44] 
and dramatically standing up for him to Draco Malfoy [61].  So she's 
not too far removed from the girl running down the train platform in 
PS/SS.

However we see also see Ginny as rather protected by Mrs. Weasley, 
and get no hint of any resentment of that fact.  She doesn't 
complain at all about going off with her mom when everyone's 
shopping for supplies.  Why didn't she want to go with the twins?  
Or with Ron and his friends?  The girl in PS/SS would have at least 
protested as she was being pulled off to the secondhand dress shops 
[57] if she didn't really want to go.  The girl in HBP or even OotP 
would have *not* wanted to go and she would have had a conniption 
fit, crush or no crush.

We get the infamous line of Ron's about Ginny not being shy usually 
[40], so I suppose that can be seen as a bit of an explanation. (The 
start, I think, of JKR telling not showing with Ginny.)  But does it 
work?  And do we really need it even?  It's pretty apparent that 
Ginny has a crush.  But she's not too shy to tell off Draco Malfoy.  
Why would she be too shy to protest being stuck with her mom while 
all the other kids go off together?  

After the shopping expedition, Ginny comes under Diary!Tom's 
influence.  And while it'd be possible, I think, to make character 
connections with a well-drawn character, Ginny changes so 
drastically as she gets older it's really hard to do so with her.  
What's up with her connection with Percy?  Shouldn't she have had a 
stronger tie with the twins?

In PoA Ginny is again more connected with Percy than the twins.  Yes 
she laughs at Percy a bit [71], but it seems good natured.  And 
she's also sharing a laugh with Harry at the same time.  So while 
she does blush when Harry looks at her, she doesn't seem quite that 
tongue-tied.  When the dementor invades the train, she goes looking 
for Ron, not the twins [82].

But it's GoF, IMO, where JKR misses some huge chances to hint at 
OotP Ginny.  Again, Ginny isn't hanging with the twins, laughing at 
the ton-tongue toffee prank, she's with her mother [54].  She'd had 
no idea about their joke shop [55] and she takes no part in Ron's 
mocking of Percy [56].

When Bill and Charlie have their great table fight in the garden, 
Ginny is laughing, not cheering with the twins as OotP Ginny would 
have been, nor surfing the tables as HBP Ginny would have done 
[60].  She doesn't join in the Quidditch talk [62-3], so she doesn't 
seem too excited about the game.  And after the game she's the first 
to fall asleep [118].  If there's any hints to Ginny's character 
here at all, it's that she's less interested in quidditch than 
Hermione.

> >>kchuplis:
> Well, regardless of when it happened or where she blossomed (and   
> since we see most things through Harry's eyes, it makes sense that 
> we notice her when Harry finally notices her, which is when she   
> actually begins to talk around him because she isn't freaked out  
> by him as "a boy" anymore),...

Betsy Hp:
But that's the thing, she doesn't really "blossom".  Ginny totally 
changes.  In OotP she's suddenly the third twin.  Not only is that 
not really hinted at in previous books, it's practically a 
contradiction.  In OotP Ginny is suddenly in full rebellion against 
her mother, lying and throwing tantrums, again going against 
everything we've seen of her before.

And suddenly she's a quidditch star?  Why, if JKR had this in mind 
before, did she not show even a hint of interest in GoF, while the 
World Cup was being played?  Crush or no crush, sporty!Ginny would 
not fall asleep after her first major game experience ever.  
Actually, she should have been rather punch-drunk.  A crush would 
not have prevented her from chatting with the twins and Charlie 
about the two teams going into the game. (It didn't prevent her from 
chatting with her mom about Bill's hair, instead.)

In HBP she takes up the twins usual role of tormenting their 
siblings and is rather nasty to Ron.  And again, this comes out of 
nowhere.  She'd gotten over her crush on Harry in OotP, but that 
didn't cause her to release her inner bitch.  So why does it come 
out now?

Personally, I think it's because JKR never got a handle on who Ginny 
was supposed to be.  Or maybe, she *did* for a bit (from PS/SS to 
GoF Ginny seems more consistent than less) but for some reason 
decided that particular character wasn't quite right to fulfill the 
role of "Harry's perfect girl" and went for a major make-over.  But 
the very fact that JKR had to do so suggests that the role of 
Harry's girlfriend really isn't all that important to the story.

> >>kchuplis
> ...JKR did a good enough job that I found the "first kiss" to be  
> one of the most well written first kisses I can recall reading.

Betsy Hp:
I wouldn't go that far, myself.  But I *did* like that scene.  I 
also like the scene where they talk about Harry's tattoo.  But I 
still think Ginny's character was handled badly.  She's more 
caricature than character by the time OotP and HBP get done with 
her.  It's unfortunate, because JKR is usually a better writer than 
that. (She handles her other characters growing from eleven to 
sixteen very well, I think.) And there are moments when we get 
glimmers of the interesting girl Ginny *could* have been, if JKR 
hadn't been so intent on making her perfect.

Betsy Hp