Apologies and responsibility

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 139289

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, <lady.indigo at g...> wrote:
<SNIP> 
> There are only two things which bother me about Harry, who I 
> otherwise love as a character: his anger, which continues to 
> reach dangerous levels even when we're down to the last book, and 
> his tendency to do a lot of rulebreaking without much remorse or 
> learning from his mistakes. I'm not talking about necessary 
> rulebreaking, like the SS/PS stuff, or rulebreaking to fight 
> against unfair things, like going to Hogsmeade in PoA. 
> 
> I'm talking about looking in Dumbledore's Pensieve, apologizing, 
> then going right back and doing it to Snape, and what I thought 
> was the most disturbing thing: doing a slightly less malicious 
> version of what Lockhart (who I believe someone here described as 
> a sociopath) does by accepting the full credit, elevated status, 
> and nifty prizes that come with cheating using the HBP's book. 
> Harry saw no problem with his using the book, not even towards the 
> end of things or after he was caught. The issue of him cheating 
> was never resolved at all, and that continues to bug me.
> 
> If Harry's progressed to doing the kind of thing that in the adult 
world would in some cases get you arrested, he has a lot to learn. 
Apologizing to Snape would have gotten him closer to learning it. 
> And having that moment of soberness in which he could do it would 
mean he could safely temper his anger, too. Yes, it seems that 
> won't be dealt with until the last book, and in light of the 
> events of HBP perhaps it shouldn't, but it still bothers me, 
> whether or not that's a failing of mine. I'd like to see Harry's 
> growing up throughout the story consist of more than learning not 
> to scream at his friends because they were doing what they thought 
> was best for him.


With regard to Harry's anger, I really can't agree with you.  Given 
all that he's been through, I would say he shows remarkable 
restraint -- certainly more so than I would, and more than I HAVE in 
many less provocative situations (no, I've never used a deadly curse 
on someone, but I have given people dressing downs that make his 
interactions with Ron, Hermione, Snape, and Dumbledore look like love 
feasts).  Anger is part of being human, as much as pain or love, and 
trying to repress it or rise above it is generally not realistic.  
However healthy or socially beneficial that might be in theory, 
people just don't work that way.  

True, Harry does take out his anger on the relatively innocent, 
sometimes (and I'm not at all sure Ron and/or Hermione are blameless 
in the situations where Harry yells at them), but let he (or she) who 
is without sin cast the first stone.  Unfortunately, we ALL take our 
anger out on inappropriate targets, sometimes.  It is, indeed, one of 
the less attractive duties of love or friendship to absorb unjust 
anger from time to time.  And, as I say, I'm not sure that Ron and/or 
Hermione don't have some of it coming, much of the time.

Besides, I think our present culture perhaps gives anger a bad wrap.  
In our current rush to a therapeutic regime (and let me hasten to say 
I have nothing against psychiatry or therapy per se, I have the 
deepest respect for those practices), we have lost touch with some 
important aspects of social morality -- righteous anger being one of 
them.  There is even plentiful theological, and if you will 
specifically Christian, justification for it.  One only has to think 
of Christ addressing the Pharisees with stinging taunts, or the 
driving the moneychangers out of the temple in a fit of rage.  Jesus 
was not always kind or patient, and sometimes displayed a towering 
temper when confronted by evil and hypocrisy.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Harry progressing to doing things that 
in the adult world would get you arrested."  Do you mean throwing 
Sectumsempra at Draco?  That's true, I suppose, but not very relevant 
considering the context.  As has been mentioned before, given 
wizarding powers of healing, wizards just don't seem to take physical 
assault nearly as seriously as muggles do.  For that matter, the 
entire wizarding world is socially retarded in many ways -- physical 
assault wasn't always taken very seriously in the muggle world of the 
nineteenth century, which is the world on which so much of the 
Potterverse for good, or I will acknowledge often for ill, is based.  
For instance in Dickens' novel Nicholas Nickleby, when Nicholas 
finally loses his temper and beats Squeers, a Snape-like 
schoolmaster, into a near coma, the policeman embraces him and sends 
him on his way, all the time chuckling "thou beat the schoolmaster," 
as if the whole thing is the world's biggest joke.  In short, if we 
are going to apply those standards, all of Hogwarts would be in jail 
before they reached the second year.  And lets face it, Harry 
probably isn't going to cow Death Eaters with his skills at Classical 
Rhetoric.

As for the cheating accusation, I don't agree at all.  Harry was 
doing what he had been instructed to do -- i.e. prepare a potion.  He 
used somewhat different directions than the rest of the class, it's 
true, however the potions he prepared were exemplery.  He never 
claims to have invented the directions himself, he did not gain these 
directions in a dishonest manner, is not forbidden to use them, and 
offers to share them with his classmates.  True, he receives praise 
from Slughorn, but it is obvious that Slughorn is just seizing an 
excuse to butter him up.  Had Harry protested that he was following 
different directions, Sluggy would undoubtedly have said "Nothing of 
it, dear boy!  It just shows your cleverness and initiative!"

In any case, in no class that I have ever taught, and I have taught 
many, would Harry's actions be considered cheating in any way -- nor 
can I imagine any of my colleagues would have ever looked upon them 
in that way.  In the environment in which I now work, a professional 
milieu outside of an academic setting, Harry would be highly 
commended for initiative and flexibility of thinking.  If Harry had 
published the HBP's directions under his own name, THAT would be 
plagiarism and theft of intellectual property, but Harry does no 
such.  Similarly, in my current professional environment, Hermione 
would recieve high formal marks, but would swiftly gain the 
reputation of being myopic and hopelessly hidebound with literal and 
restrictive interpretations, and her chances for promotion would be 
dwindling rapidly.


Lupinlore