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

[Peg DiGrazia]

No: HPFGUIDX 144845

va32h:
  <<The examples that you cited in your previous post don't strike me as anything more sinister than the difference between 11 and 15. Hadn't Harry changed a bit between the ages of 11 and 15. Many readers were shocked at ANGRY!HARRY! in OoTP - such a departure from his previous self. Ginny in HBP is the age Harry was in OoTP. Perhaps in the wizarding world, one undergoes a personality reversal at the age of 15?>>
   
Peg:
You say that facetiously, but, although I agree that a lot of Ginny's character development seems to come out of left field, I believe hitting puberty plays a greater part in it than most people consider.  I teach a middle school chorus and regularly see girls who were sweet and quiet in 7th grade come back in 8th grade rude, pushy and obnoxious.  Hormones will do that to girls!  In the first several books, Ginny really is still a little girl.  We see glimpses of her spirit, but she hasn't yet reached the age where she'll fight with her mother to be allowed to go with her brothers in Diagon Alley.  By the time she's 14, though, her adolescent personality has started to come through.  I've been re-reading and focusing more on Ginny, and her personality change seems less awkward to me than it did when I first read HBP.  The combination of puberty and the Harry filter (and we seem to see more of Ginny's personality at the Burrow than we do at Hogwarts, when Harry has more important things to focus on) works for me.  Or maybe I'm just fanwanking.
   
Peg