Harry does cry Re: Of Sorting and Snape

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 175686

va32h:

> I have to wonder what kind of response Baby Harry 
> received from the Dursleys, when he cried in those 
> first few weeks at Privet Drive? I would guess that 
> Harry learned at a very early age not to cry.

houyhnhnm:

That's a good point that Harry's inability to *allow* 
himself to cry may be a result of psychological damage 
suffered at the hands of the Dursleys.  It's not that he 
doesn't feel sorrow strongly enough to bring tears.  He 
does.  But he seems to feel the need to repress it.

It's not how the passages affected me the first time I 
read them, though.  Long before I ever started reading 
discussions on web sites, back when it just me and the 
text, the negative message about showing your feelings 
jumped out at me.  I figured it was a Brit thing.

I, too, have been hurriedly thumbing through 4100 pages 
to find the passages I remembered.  I would like to examine 
the language of those passages. 

(SS, Scholastic, 299)
>>Dumbledore now became very interested in a bird out 
on the windowsill, which gave Harry time to dry his 
eyes on the sheet.<<

Harry's just been told how his mother died to save him.  
If ever there were an appropriate occasion for the public 
display of grief, this would be the time it seems to me.  
Now, I can see why Harry, with his history, had difficulty 
showing grief.  What seems off to me is the fact that 
Dumbledore had to pretend not to observe that Harry was 
crying, as if Harry's tears were somehow shameful.

Contrast that with Dumbeldore's calm acceptance of Harry's 
rampage after the battle at the MoM.  Rage is nothing to 
be ashamed of.  Tears are. 

(GoF, Scholastic, 714)
>>The thing against which he had been fighting on and 
off ever since he had come out of the maze was threatening 
to overpower him.  He could feel a burning prickling 
feeling in the inner corner of his eyes.  He blinked 
and stared up at the ceiling. <<

"The thing"  That seems a very peculiar way to describe 
very natural feelings after watching a classmate murdered 
in cold blood.  He has to blink and stare at the ceiling.  
He has to fight "the thing".  It just seems like a weird 
choice of words to me.

(OotP, Scholastic, 856)
>>The sun had fallen before he realized that he was 
cold.  He got up and returned to the castle, wiping 
his face on his sleeve.<<

Harry has no trouble letting his grief out this time.  
He's alone.  There's is no one to observe his shame.

(DH, Scholastic, 328)
>>And tears came before he could stop them, boiling hot 
then instantly freezing on his face, and what was the 
point of wiping them off or pretending? <<

Well, thank goodness. At last!  But here still we have 
"before he could stop them" and no "point of ...pretending." 
Because he's with Hermione, he feels the need to pretend.

Yes, I got the message that Gryffindors don't cry long 
before I read any posts online and somebody put the idea 
in my head.  It was my first reaction the first time I 
read the books.

Of course, there is an exception in Hagrid, who cries 
readily. Hagrid, though, is presented as a great big kid 
with a lot of eccentricities and not a lot of social control.