Harry's Compassion (Malum blah blah blah )

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 174505

> > Alla: 
> > So basically it all boils down to Harry feeling more for 
> > Slytherin and Draco Malfoy? Or other bad guys? I mean, we have no
> > other bad guys. I mean I do not want to speak for you either, but 
> > I am asking for clarification. I would like to know what would 
> > make you consider Harry to be more compassionate character.
> > 
> > Does him feeling for Wormtail counts, because I do not see what 
> > justice would be in saving him? Does him offering to go look 
> > for Luna's things counts? Feeling for Neville?  Feeling for Tom 
> > Riddle? 
> 
> Magpie:
> Well, yeah, given that it's the bad characters that are more 
> difficult to feel compassion for. 
> 
> Basically, I think it goes off in the wrong direction to make it 
> about Harry and what would make him more compassionate, because
> Harry is who he is. I don't have a problem with Harry. But I think 
> that the story Harry is in just doesn't ultimately say anything
> that significant about compassion. 


Jen:  Wading in here with a few thoughts about whether Harry is 
characterized by compassion.  My simple answer is no, he's not 
someone whose compassion stands out when I'm reading his thoughts and 
actions.  There are other strengths I see in Harry.   

Thinking of characters who come across as compassionate in 
order to explain why Harry did not, Luna is one who springs to mind.  
She and Ollivander formed a connection to each other after their 
imprisonment, expressed by their good-byes to each other.  Granted, 
after a long period of isolation and torture Mr. Ollivander might 
have found anyone thrown into his cell a welcome relief (and a newly 
imprisoned Luna might have felt the same).  However, Ollivander said 
Luna was an 'inexpressible comfort' to him.  After watching Luna for 
a few books, I could imagine her recognizing the suffering of 
Ollivander and sharing it with him, as well as attempting to relieve 
his misery in whatever way possible.  It's what she does for Harry in 
OOTP, understanding his anxiety about seeing the thestrals, then 
later connecting with him during his grief over losing Sirius.  

I think of compassion as not only recognizing and hoping to relieve 
the pain of another but sharing the pain in such a way that the 
burden is lessened.  Compassion can be present whether a person is 
able to change another's situation or not:  Luna wasn't able to break 
Ollivander out of his prison or keep him from being tortured as Harry 
was, yet Ollivander found her an 'inexpressible comfort' regardless.  

Harry's 'saving people thing' is something else in my view.  Yes, he 
desperately wants to save people who are suffering or dying and takes 
action to do so whenever he possibly can.  He's heroic and brave 
without thought to his own safety in these moments.  I'd even 
characterize him as empathetic with intense, immediate pain, 
especially the physical pain of another.  But his strength isn't in 
sharing another's pain as much as his ability to *act* to relieve it, 
to make things happen, to wipe suffering away (possibly in part 
because it's so anxiety-provoking for him to watch or hear it happen).

If I lived in Potterverse, I'd sure rather find Harry thrown into my 
cell because then I'd know the author was about to save me. <g>  In 
real life or a fictional setting where Harry didn't have the means to 
save people almost every time he sets his sights on it, I'd take 
someone like Luna, with an ability to make my emotional or physical 
pain more bearable.

Jen