Is Harry arrogant?

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 123650


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "M.Clifford" <Aisbelmon at h...> 
wrote:

Valky:
> Harry ends with a hint of revenge, so he has swayed back, most 
> likely, to overestimating his ability to make an impact on 
Voldemort.
> 
> The most important thing I am trying to say is that Harry's 
> arrogance is the kind of arrogance that a warrior takes into 
battle. 
> The warrior is not actually an arrogant person, but they assume a 
> sense of it when faced with a situation that calls for them to be 
> brave. This part of Harry is like James. Though in James case, I 
> think, he was *always* trying to be brave and often ended up 
looking 
> arrogant instead.

Geoff:
I think that we have a different interpretation of "arrogance". Most 
of the folk I know would probably agree with me that it has a very 
negative connotation. If I were called arrogant, I would consider 
that I had been grossly insulted.

A person is arrogant when they assume that they know everything about 
a particular topic – often  when they don't, who make a point of 
letting everyone know about this belief and who treat anyone who 
dares to disagree with them with disdain. In the English phrase, 
they "look down their noses at everyone". They are bumptious and full 
of themselves. Arrogance is a word which I would use to describe 
people such as Draco Malfoy and his father. With their obsessively 
elitist ideas about pure-blood wizards and their rude and deprecating 
remarks to half-bloods and Muggles, they are supremely arrogant.

Harry is not. In the section we have looked at, Harry has apparently 
been backed into a corner. He believes that Snape is the person 
trying to gain the Philosopher's Stone for Voldemort. Dumbledore has 
been summoned urgently to London and Professor McGonagall is quite 
convinced that the Stone is well-protected. Therefore, he can see no 
one to whom he can turn. So he decides to try to get to the Stone 
first. Hermione's priority is that Harry might get detention; it is 
Harry who sees the bigger picture – the possible implications of 
Voldemort getting possession of the Stone. He has enough knowledge to 
realise that what he is doing is risky and is resigned to go ahead 
despite the potentially fatal results for him.

He is not boasting about his knowledge or experience, he is not being 
disdainful to others. He sees this as the only option. This is not 
arrogance. It is not his "saving people" syndrome. Arrogance is not 
bravado, which is the word I think I would use in your example of 
going into battle. What Harry is displaying is the sort of determined 
guts which kept people such as the Londoners in the East End going 
during the 1940 blitz, trying to carry on a normal life regardless 
but not knowing if they would still be alive to tell the tale the 
next day.