[HPforGrownups] Re: Another look at the Mirror of Erised

[Susanne]

No: HPFGUIDX 126248



Hi,

Thursday, March 17, 2005, 3:04:21 AM, Fitzov wrote:

> I would love to see Ron having developed in the same direction and putting
> his family and friends before personal glory.  As other posters have
> speculated, Books 6 and 7 may well be the place where Ron discovers that
> there are many other things more important than becoming Head Boy or
> Quiddich Captain.

I don't believe Ron's vision in the mirror actually means he
wants personal glory.

And I don't think Harry's deepest desire is somehow "better"
than Ron's.

If Harry *had* a family, I doubt he would be seeing them in
the mirror. Humans tend to desire things they don't have,
and looking at Harry's childhood, I can't think of anything
that he could miss more.

Ron has a family who loves him (no need to have that as his
deepest desire), but said family has a lot of strong
personalities in it, who tend to get all the positive
attention, while Ron is the sixth son, and was followed by a
baby sister who I strongly suspect got a lot more attention
than he did, *because* she is a girl.

Ron doesn't want personal glory (imo). He wants to be
"seen". Not just as another Weasley, but as Ron.

At home, Ron seems to blend in.
No outstanding academic achievements to get him positive
attention, and he doesn't appear to be a troublemaker to get
attention that way.
During the time Ron grew up, he saw how his parents reacted
to his five brothers' achievements, and years of that can
make it hard to keep up your self esteem.

I'm actually proud of Ron's strength in sharing his family
with him and not showing jealousy for that.
After all, Harry outshines him in just about everything, and
his whole family pays a lot of attention to Harry, which I
could see hurting sometimes.

It's great for Harry, who deserves it, of course, but I am
trying to look at it from Ron's POV.

So, to me it doesn't seem strange that Ron sees himself
alone, with a lot of achievements, and Harry sees himself
surrounded by family.

And ironically they both wish for what the other has, and I
think they are both learning that actually having those
things isn't always as desirable as they imagines it to be.

-- 
Best regards,
 Susanne                           mailto:siskiou at vcem.com