Harry's assumption VS Everyone's assumption

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 151708

Tonks:
> I disagree that a child can make an "informed decision" about 
things 
that a child does not understand. Some things have been kept from 
Harry and rightly so.

Ceridwen:
I have to agree with Tonks on this.  JKR has said something about 
setting the genres on their ears, and actually showing that the hero 
has some growing up to do would, at least in the TV shows I've seen, 
be setting that particular genre on its ear.  I'm fuzzier about 
classical storylines, but I very vaguely recall that heroes were 
stupid and bull-headed until they were out on their own and had to 
make decisions without the buffer of their elders to protect them.

Tonks:
> Children are told what they need to know for their stage of life. 
Beyond that it is the adult's responsibility to protect and guide 
the child. When he was younger Harry had no right to know anything 
that the adults were doing. The adults WILL take care of it.  That 
is why children have parents and are not just hatched under a rock 
and on their own from day one.

Ceridwen:
Since the quoted post was a response to me, it's obvious that I 
believe this.  Harry, or any child in this position, already had 
enough to do with learning his lessons, which will be important to 
his task, without worrying about what the adults are up to.  
Dumbledore had some reason that he thought was good enough, so he 
trusted Snape.  Harry starts the series at eleven, and very 
importantly, as a baby in the WW.  He needs to be protected from 
having to worry about every little thing as he learns his way around 
what is, to him, an alien society.  He has little experience with 
adults, or with life in general.  And the experience he has is very 
negative - the Dursleys, and the teachers at his primary school who 
didn't notice that something fishy was going on in his life.  And, 
children are very black-and-white about the rules.  A bad guy is 
always bad, a good guy is always good.  That's why Sirius told him 
that people weren't divided neatly into two camps.

A lot of people want JKR to write believably for the Real World, in 
things like comeuppance for characters they see as abusive.  If she 
will, then why not write realistically for children who are still too 
young to see beyond what their limited experience shows them?  Kids 
in real life are brutalized and killed by 'nice' people.  What if 
this is a lesson of the books?  Look at the 'nice' Crouch!Moody, and 
the fawning Peter Pettigrew.  Or, the 'dangerously demented' Sirius 
Black.  Or the 'all-knowing' Dumbledore.  The jury's still out 
on 'greasy' Snape.

Tonks:
> He jumps to erroneous conclusions, doesn't listen to others who are 
wiser, etc.

Ceridwen:
Yes, he does.  That's all a part of growing up, and if he learns from 
his mistakes, he'll be better able to defeat Voldemort when the time 
comes.  These years are when a child learns discernment as a survival 
skill as well as a social aid.  I think Harry will get his worst time 
in this regard during the first half of book 7.  And that's when 
it'll start to hit home and he'll absorb the lessons.  I believe that 
Harry will win, and there was no reason to worry (though it does look 
like it at times *g*).

Ceridwen.