Power vs. Trust (was:The Possibilities of Grey Snape...)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 143065

Julie wrote <snip>:
> > 4. Nothing in Harry being the hero means he has to be right about
everything. In fact, one component of being a hero in literature is
learning and growing, coming to a better understanding of the
surrounding world and the people in it. 
> 
> 
Lupinlore responded:
> BORING!  Joseph Campbell to the fore, once again.  Not to mention
that would be extraordinarily insipid and morally revolting.  Oh, and
did I say BOOORRRIIING!

Carol responds:
Why does everything have to relate to Joseph Campbell? Forget the
heroic quest for a moment: The Bildungsroman (coming-of-age novel, for
those not familiar with the term) also requires that the young
protagonist go through a series of character-developing experiences
that eventually lead him to "a better understanding of the surrounding
world and the people in it," to quote Julie. Or, as William Blake
(who, of course, wrote poetry rather than novels) put it, the child
goes from a state of Innocence (not purity or essential goodness but a
lack of understanding) through Experience (dealing with hardship and
facing challenges) to Wisdom (understanding). You see exactly that
progression in "Jane Eyre," "David Copperfield," "Great Expectations"
and any other novel of growing up. (Other posters may be able to cite
more recent examples of the genre.)

At any rate, there's nothing trite about it. That's what life is
about. If we knew everything there is to know at eleven, if we learned
nothing from experience, then adults would need to step aside and let
children rule the world. 

Maybe Draco is right and Dumbledore is just a "stupid old man" who's
wrong about Snape. After all, that's just a stronger version of
Harry's view that Dumbledore is wrong to trust Snape. The kids, both
the newly minted Death Eater and the Chosen One, agree that the old
mentor's judgment is not to be trusted. Their instincts are more sound
than the judgment of a highly intelligent old man who distrusted Tom
Riddle from the beginning and defeated the Dark wizard Grindelwald.

Somehow, I don't think that's JKR's message. Harry has to learn and
grow. That's part of life and a requirement of the Bildungsroman
genre. If that's boring (I mean "BOOOOORING!") then perhaps you should
read some other book or series. How about the Alice books, in which
the adventures are nothing but a dream, or a tragedy in which the hero
dies rather than gaining a better understanding of his world and the
other characters? 

How, if I dare ask, is it "insipid and morally revolting" for the
protagonist to grow up, to know and understand more at seventeen than
he did at eleven? Why have the books at all if the child protagonist
knows no more about anything except how to cast a spectacular spell or
two at the end of the series than he did at the beginning? I honestly
don't understand how having Harry learn that Dumbledore was right to
trust Snape (or about choices and death and all the other lessons he
attempted to teach Harry) would be "morally revolting." (*I* think it
would be "morally revolting" to have Harry's primitive, childish
desire for revenge presented as heroic, and I sincerely hope that
Harry will never cast a successful Crucio against Snape or anyone else.)

Carol, thanking Lupinlore for not including the word "cheesy" in this
post and noting as an aside (to whom it may concern) that Campbell's
analysis of mythic structure should not be confused with the literary
theory called Structuralism, which derives from Claude Levi-Strass's
ideas relating to language and culture

http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/hopkins_guide_to_literary_theory/structuralism.html