Harry does cry Re: Of Sorting and Snape

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 175697

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "houyhnhnm102" <celizwh at ...> wrote:
>
> 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.

Geoff:
I think it is a British "thing".

I've often cursed the fact that i've been unable to cry at times. 
I can get a tear in my eye as Harry apparently did, but full 
scale crying - no. I think that the "boys don't cry" syndrome is 
still very present today in the UK. I remember being very surprised 
when Harry found Draco crying in the boys' toilet in HBP but not 
surprised at the latter's violent reaction to being seen in that 
condition.

houyhnhnm:
> 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. 

Geoff:
You should get the UK editions - they only come to 3362 pages. :-)