In defence of Harry

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 123299


My thoughts in writing this post were triggered off by two comments 
in post 123267:

Alla wrote "Rules in the dictatorship CAN be changed and often ARE 
changed if people decide to DO something about it ( For the latest of 
such RL developments let me refer you to events in my former home 
country - Ukraine). Hogwarts students and teachers eventually refused 
to let Umbridge have power over them. Result? She is not there 
anymore."

Valky also wrote:  "You see I don't imagine quite so much student and 
teacher revolution against DU could have ever been possible if 
*Harry* hadn't made the
first move, broke the ice as it were and confronted her dictatorship 
face to face. As Alla says, someone has to *decide* to do something 
about it. That in itself is wisdom. There is a lot of history in RL 
that shows dictatorships can go on unchallenged for a long time 
before some reckless desperado, like in this case Harry, shows up to 
spit on the fire."

There have been a number of contributors who have taken the line that 
Harry stuck his neck out in the DADA lesson and that he deserved the 
detention with Umbridge despite the way she treated him.

But let's step back and look at the wider picture. I wrote a fairly 
long posting back at message 118574: "Harry's developing behaviour – 
average or unique" in which I argued, basing my assumptions on my own 
teenage years and on over 30 years experience of teaching teens, that 
Harry in many ways is behaving in a "normal" manner for his age; 
although admittedly he comes from a unique background, that provides 
less of a reason for his actions.

However far we are now removed from them, I think that many of us can 
look back on our teenage years and recall two things which influenced 
our thinking and decisions. First, that we thought we were going to 
change the world - that we were the best thing since sliced bread and 
second, we had a finely-tuned sense of what was just or unjust – that 
right was right and wrong was wrong. This second is what propelled 
Harry into his confrontation with Dolores Umbridge. After having been 
deprived of news – and also the support of friends - during the 
summer, he returns to Hogwarts to find that both he and Dumbledore 
(who is still something of a hero for him) are being subjected to a 
rubbishing campaign by the Wizarding World media. He knows that Fudge 
is deliberately lying about Voldemort and is applying pressure to 
the "Daily Prophet" to propagate these lies to the public. Hence, his 
initial response in challenging Umbridge's "interpretation" of events.

To begin with, he is disbelieved, mocked and ostracised by many of 
his fellow students at Hogwarts and it is only as events continue to 
unfold that this "reckless desperado" spits on the fire and 
indirectly orchestrates the revolt against Umbridge.

This is so reminiscent of the way in which people in real situations 
have, by their reactions to oppression, have changed the mind set of 
those around them. Think of those unknown people in, say, the French 
Resistance, who risked everything to disrupt the German occupation. 
Think of folk like Claus von Stauffenberg, who masterminded the 
abortive anti-Hitler coup in 1944 or Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great 
German Christian leader, who forsook the safety of Canada in 1939 to 
return to Nazi Germany where he encouraged believers in the darkest 
days of the war to stand by their faith and who was finally executed 
for his role. Think of the lady (I fear I forget her name) who 
refused to give up a bus seat in Birmingham, Alabama and sowed the 
seeds of the Civil Rights movement in the USA in the 1960s. Real 
world history is replete with figures who opposed dictators – both 
petty and great – regardless of the possible dangers.

My other point is that those people who say that Harry deserved what 
he got are looking at things with the benefit of hindsight. Dolores 
Umbridge is introduced at the beginning of OOTP as an ambivalent and 
sinister figure. She is a shadowy figure at the Wizengamot hearing 
and our first real look at her makes her a suspicious figure:

`In the complete silence that greeted these words, the witch to the 
right of Fudge leaned forwards so that Harry saw her for the first 
time.

He thought that she looked just like a large, pale toad. She was 
rather squat with a broad, flabby face, as little neck as Uncle 
Vernon and a very  wide, slack mouth. Her eyes were large, round and 
slightly bulging. Even the little black bow perched on top of her 
short curly hair put him in mind of a large fly she was about to 
catch on a long, sticky tongue.
"The Chair recognises Dolores Jane Umbridge, Senior Under-secretary 
to the Minister," said Fudge.
The witch spoke in a fluttery, girlish, high-pitched voice that took 
Harry aback; he had been expecting a croak.
"I'm sure I must have misunderstood you, Professor Dumbledore," she 
said, with a simper that left her big, round eyes as cold as 
ever. "So silly of me. But it sounded for a teensy moment as though 
you were suggesting that the Ministry of Magic had ordered an attack 
on the boy!"

She gave a silvery laugh that made the hairs on the back of Harry's 
neck stand up. A few other members of the Wizengamot laughed with 
her. It could not have been plainer that not one of them was really 
amused.'

(OOTP "The Hearing" p.134 UK edition)

The reactions, both of Harry and others  are interesting. Then at 
Hogwarts, she effectively elbows Dumbledore out of the way to deliver 
her "Party Political Broadcast" speech, which again produces some 
interesting reactions; warning bells seem to ring for both Hermione 
and Minerva McGonagall. 

What is not obvious at this point though is the inhuman and vicious 
way in which she will attack anyone who shows the slightest 
opposition  to her authority. One can understand any teacher being 
annoyed if their work is questioned by a pupil; Harry was out or 
order, but understandably so as I indicated earlier.

What was totally out of order was Umbridge's barbaric treatment of 
Harry, the draconian measures she announces at any sign of 
disagreement, her calculated humiliation of Hagrid both at first 
meeting and in class, her treatment of Trelawney and her attempted 
punishment of Fred and George.

Harry stuck his neck out, not because he wanted a war with her but 
because he was trying to set the record straight and rescue his own 
position. Her reaction mirrors that of the Ministry who believe 
that,if they do enough to undermine the status and views of 
the "enemy" and stick their heads in the sand, the clear and present 
danger will disperse harmlessly. There are real world examples of 
this being done. One which comes immediately to mind is that of the 
campaign to isolate Winston Churchill in the 1930s when successive 
British Governments did not want to know about the activities of the 
Nazi regime – an ignorance which enhanced the scale of the dreadful 
events of the Second World War.