Harry's Lies - and he knows it - That's important

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 125086


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lupinlore" <bob.oliver at c...> wrote:


> Lupinlore:
>
> ...edited...
>
> So what are we to make of Harry's lies?  How do they fit with his
> psychology?  How do they fit with the morality of the Potterverse?
> 
> Lupinlore


bboyminn:

I've touched on this before. There is one very critical /event/ in the
books that tells us about the quality of Harry's lying and the quality
of his charater.

In every case, when it doesn't otherwise distract from the story, when
Harry lies, the narrative says Harry lied. 

- Example from OotP -

'Aren't you... aren't you worried about the Ministry of Magic
hearing?' said Hermione quietly.

'No,' Harry lied defiantly.
- end quote -

On other occassions, the narration mentions that Harry can't look his
friends in the eye when he tells them a lie, and these are usually
very small insignificant lies like telling Hermione he's done his
homework..

On another occasion, Harry tells some casual lie to Hagrid, and in the
narrative, Harry reflects on how guilty he feels, lying to Hagrid is
not like lying to anyone else.

JKR usually doesn't have to say this, most of the time it's obvious.
So why does she make a point of it? 

For Illustration-

If this statement occurred in the next book...

'I don't know what the Prophecy said,' Harry lied.

Since we know this isn't true, the story is just as well served by
saying...

'I don't know what the Prophecy said,' Harry said.

Again, we the reader, with our special insight, already know it's a
lie, why would the author need to point that out to us?

Why? Because, that narration is a reflection of Harry's inner
psychological life. JKR specifically says '...Harry lied...' because
she wants us to know that Harry is well aware that he is lying. She
wants us to know that Harry's conscience is making him aware that he
is doing something he shouldn't. That conscience, that awareness,
helps endear us to Harry. That awareness of his own lying, those
guilty feelings, are our inner clues to the fact that Harry is a moral
person. That he is well aware of right and wrong. 

We all tell lies. If there is one among us who hasn't, then they are
an extremely rare individual indeed. Instead of holding Harry to some
theoretical moral standard that no one can live up to, I think it is
fairer to look at the grand scheme of things, and measure Harry's
overal character, and not judge him by hand picking specific events.

Life is never black and white, we all live in shades of gray. To judge
the characters in the books, you can't look just at Snape and Harry's
relationship to judge Snape. We need to judge Snape across his past,
present, and future. The same is true of Dumbledore. We can point to
many mistakes Dumbledore has made, many things that Dumbledore did
that people think were horribly wrong. But again, he should not be
judged on those specific events, but across the arc of his life, and
across the arc of his full character.

We should not judge Harry on the little white lies that we all tell,
but on the quality of character he displays when it really counts. 

As far as Harry not telling Molly about the money he gave Fred and
George, let's not lose sight of the fact that he DID tell Molly, or at
least he told Ron it was OK to tell Molly. Harry knew Molly didn't
approve of Fred and George starting a joke shop. He simply didn't want
to get himself or the twins in trouble, and he, in narrative,
expresses quilt/conscience about not telling her. Once it became
apparent that not telling was going to cause more trouble, he told
right away.

As long as we see this awareness of his action in Harry's internal
landscape, and as long as Harry is aware of his lying, we and Harry
are OK. We know that underneath the moment is someone of conscience.
The time to start worrying is when these little things pass by and
Harry doesn't give them a seconds thought, when the sense of right and
wrong are lost, then it time to worry and wonder.

Just calling it like I see it.

Steve/bboyminn