[HPforGrownups] Re: Harry's arrogance (was Evil Snape)

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 154298

Peggy Richter:
Expecting Harry to be
perfect at it is unreasonable, when we debate about if DD's use was
or wasn't always correct.  Heros don't just wait for someone "wiser"
to direct them (not even in LOTR ).  At some point they have to make
their own decisions.  Having Harry be wrong yet again does not
further the story. Rather it diminishes the hero and becomes a tale
advocating no one do anything about evil because they might be wrong
in what they do.  I don't think that is JKR's philosophy.  I think
finally, Harry is right and DD and the others are the arrogant ones.

Magpie:
Having Harry be wrong again absolutely furthers the story, because this is 
the story of the development of Harry Potter from boy to man.  With a whole 
nother both left Harry had better have some big wrongs to go.  The biggest 
wrongs, hopefully, because we've got a climax here.  Pointing out mistakes 
that Harry has made is not saying he's not good enough to be the hero; 
that's what heroes often do is make mistakes because they haven't learned 
things.  It's not like Harry's the only one--Snape and Dumbledore have made 
huge mistakes.  We just don't focus on them as much because it's not their 
story.

There are ways that Harry is right, especially in Book VI, but I think it's 
important where he's right and where he's wrong.  I don't think he's right 
about Snape just being evil evil evil, which Harry always knew because Snape 
helpfully irritated him on a daily basis for 6 years.  That's Dumbledore's 
area of understanding as someone who has lived longer and knows the facts 
more and Snape better.  I think Dumbledore even showed his better instincts 
there in how he saw the Draco problem.

However, Dumbledore also made a huge mistake in handling the Draco case and 
that highlights Harry's area--Dumbledore is not wholly in touch with the 
young.  It wasn't that Harry was right in knowing who was evil.  Harry is 
Draco's peer and in certain ways understands him better than a lot of 
people.  When Sirius Black was on the loose Draco talks to Harry about what 
he would do "if it were his family" that Black had killed.  It's the only 
time in the series pre-HBP that Ron and Hermione have to talk Harry away 
from listening to Malfoy, when Harry tells them "Malfoy knows" about 
Black--and I now think JKR was subtly setting up HBP there.  In HBP no one 
believes Malfoy could be working as a DE because he's too young, but that's 
where Harry's pov--a part connected to all his mistakes as well as his 
strengths--has a much clearer understanding of what both Voldemort and 
Malfoy would do and not do in the situation.  (In Malfoy's case I think 
Harry is correctly doing some projecting--Malfoy is doing what Harry would 
probably do in his situation, since it's not completely different from what 
Harry does now.  Not murder people, obviously, but act as the one that's got 
to make things right.)

So to me there's a perfectly good balance, especially at this point in the 
series.  Harry's pov as a younger person makes him understand certain things 
that older people like DD do not.  DD should have listened to him about the 
danger of whatever Malfoy was doing in the RoR.  But he still must learn 
DD's lesson about second chances and seeing the good in people.  I think 
that was DD's most important lesson in HBP, given to a frozen, invisible 
Harry in the Tower.  That was the first time Harry actually *saw* a person 
he was predisposed to think of as only bad show conflict.  He has not yet 
seen that with Snape, but I think it happened.

A Harry who grows in the next book into someone who has his own strengths 
and also learns to appreciate the complexity of people more instead of 
sorting them into people who are all good/people who are all bad and becomes 
able to deal with people who bother him personally but still have value, 
will be a Harry who grows up. The idea of a Harry who learns that the man he 
felt was so wise was really just a stupid old man with a soft heart and that 
it's better to go through life as a teenager who knows everything seems kind 
of like a bad joke to me. It even makes things less complex for Harry than 
they were before, as it gives him a reason to forget (as he already wants to 
do) the times when Snape has protected him.

-m