In defense of DD WAS musings on Dumbledore - Even Longer

[sridharj_ap]

No: HPFGUIDX 158818

> Magpie:
> But those bonuses were unexpected, as you said--really they're 
more 
> incredibly lucky breaks rather than bonuses.  Growing up oppressed 
> would not necessarily give Harry a true sense of justice.  It 
could 
> just as easily give him a sense of always being oppressed.  In 
fact, 
> I'd say that's sometimes what he has.  His sense of justice is 
often 
> very much dependent on which person he's talking about.  He hates 
> people who remind him of the Dursleys, but that doesn't always 
> translate into an unerring sense of justice.  He *thinks* he has a 
> great sense of justice, but he doesn't always by a longshot.

Ummm... True, but considering that Harry usually rebels/gets angered 
when he thinks he is being oppressed, I would think he has a good 
sense of justice. He automatically sides with people who are the 
butt of jokes. Neville comes to mind immediately.

I agree that he also feels that he oppressed always, but that this 
because some "inferiority complex" co-exists with his sense of 
justice. I suspect that you have some real good canon to say he 
doesn't have a sense of justice. I am not so well-versed in canon, 
so it would be good to see them.

> Not having money doesn't automatically make a person not care 
about 
> money.  It can just as easily make them focus on money more, as it 
> often does for the Weasleys. Yes, Harry isn't totally focused on 
> buying expensive things all the time, but he's rich.  Ron also 
grew 
> up without money and gets more frustrated about it when he can't 
> have the basic things Harry can.  There's just not that much in 
>   the  WW to want, really. 

I may not have been clear. My intention was that Harry would 
be "money-wise" and knows the true value of money. The Weasely's 
would have been the same had they the money. But Ron is still a kid 
and therefore a certain envy of Harry. I disagree that the Weaselys 
are focussed on money; although they certainly are not well-off, 
they are not harping on money in a obsessive, immoral way.

> There's absolutely not reason to think Harry would have been 
friends 
> with Draco Malfoy had he grown up in the WW--James wouldn't have 
> been, and I wouldn't be surprised if he'd disliked him even 
> earlier.  Being selective about your friends is a trait many 
people 
> share--including Draco Malfoy.  Or Ron or Hermione.  Or James 
> Potter, who may have misread Peter but sure had a loyal (if 
flawed!) 
> friend in Sirius. So I don't think I'd say getting yelled at 
> constantly by the Dursleys is the thing that made Harry choose his 
> friends well.  (And frankly, he's not really friends with Neville, 
> he just recognizes him as a good guy.)

You have really confused me on this. The more i read this, the more 
I am convinced, since I lost my original intention in writing it.

> Would you really say he needs the balance of living with the 
> Dursleys to keep him from getting a swelled head?  It's not like 
> he's constantly adored in the WW either.  I'd actually say he 
> learned to distrust that kind of worship more by seeing the 
downside 
> and shallowness of it in the WW rather than being at the 
Dursleys.  
> Again, I'd say it's lucky Harry turned out this way.  Raising a 
kid 
> to have no self-esteem and then tossing him into a world where 
he's 
> a hero for simply continuing to breath, sounds more like a recipe 
> for disaster to me than a way to make a good person.  It turned 
out 
> all right, but I'd say it was more in spite of than because of the 
> Dursleys.  And even if it was partly in thanks to them, it doesn't 
> make Harry's treatment right.

I agree that people with zero self-esteem during the formative years 
may feel spiteful when they become powerful (
thats the definition of a bully), although I continue to think that 
if he was brought up in a rich Wizarding family, Harry may have 
become a little believing in the "I am a hero". Low Self-esteem 
turned out a good thing here - it gave him caution along with 
confidence. 

Regards
Sridhar