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

[kelleyaynn]

No: HPFGUIDX 144944


> Betsy Hp wrote: 
> > Everything Hermione told Harry should have rung a bit true.  
Maybe 
> > filled in some blanks, but not come out of nowhere.  JKR did a 
> > pretty good job of using discriptors that suggested Ginny was 
> pretty 
> > throughout the series. (Her "bright brown eyes" in CoS, for 
> > example.)  So Harry suddenly finding Ginny attractive didn't 
come 
> > out of nowhere for readers.  It's her *character* that JKR fell 
> down 
> > on, IMO.  And she had plenty of places to do a better job.  
> 
> va32h:
> 
>  Well I do agree that Ginny has been something of an insta-
character 
> (just add water, and watch her suddenly become a vital part of the 
> plot!) Hermione's knowledge of Ginny did come out of  nowhere for 
> Harry and the reader, but I didn't find it contradictory, because 
I 
> thought that Ginny was a bit of a blank slate in the first four 
> books anyway. There wasn't anything to contradict! 
> 
> 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? 


Kelleyaynn:

I too did not find the somewhat sudden emphasis on Ginny to be 
disturbing. As someone else said (and I can't find the post, sorry) 
this series is written from Harry's POV. If he isn't noticing Ginny, 
we won't either. I think, actually, that it is kind of interesting 
how many times he DOES notice her, since she is just Ron's younger 
sister, and why should Harry care? 

The sudden emphasis on her in HBP makes perfect sense when looked at 
from Harry's POV. How many times, when you were younger, did you not 
notice someone who's been around for a while, or years, then all of 
a sudden one day you realized you had a crush on him or her? Perhaps 
her character development was done a bit sloppily, but I'm not 
bothered by it.

Since she got so much "face time" in HBP, I don't believe she will 
suddenly fade into the background in the last book. There is some 
evidence from a Mugglenet interview with JKR that she is more 
important than just a mere love interest. 

MA: Does she have a larger importance; the Tom Riddle stufff, being 
the seventh girl —

JKR: The backstory with Ginny was, she was the first girl to arrive 
in the Weasley family in generations, but there's that old tradition 
of the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter and a seventh son of a 
seventh son, so that's why she's the seventh, because she is a 
gifted witch. I think you get hints of that, because she does some 
pretty impressive stuff here and there, and you'll see that again.

Here's the link to the interview:
http://www.quick-quote-quill.org/articles/2005/0705-tlc_mugglenet-
anelli-3.htm

I think that the emphasis on the developing relationships between 
Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione are going to be important in 
some way in book 7. JKR has spent a lot of time developing them, so 
there has to be some reason for it other than just to give them the 
usual teenage crushes. Since love is such a powerful weapon to use 
against Voldemort, I believe that the bonds between Ron and 
Hermione, and Harry and Ginny will be meaningful at some point. And 
yes, they are young, but there are several instances of love 
relationships developing early in life for wizards and witches (Lily 
and James, Arthur and Molly for example).