Compassionate hero (WAS Re: Appeal of the story to the reader)

[va32h]

No: HPFGUIDX 175743

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lizzyben04" <lizzyben04 at ...> 
wrote:
(snip) 
> It almost seems like Harry views his pain as something
> separate from him, a foreign "thing" that he has to fight against &
> repress & stuff under a chair.... and ignore, because adults won't 
try
> to help ease the crying & suffering anyway.
> 
> He thinks of his love for Ginny the same way - that infamous "chest
> monster". It's a monster, separate from him, nothing to do with him
> really. And he tries to repress & ignore those emotions as well. The
> love "chest monster" and the pain "thing" have just taken up 
residence
> inside him - and he wishes they'd go away. So, Harry the Gryffindor
> sees both romantic love & sadness as almost separate entities -
> shameful entities that he has to hide from others. And these 
emotions
> are also "water" traits, associated w/the evil "other" 
Slytherins....
> I don't think I'm making this up here. 
> 
> In one sense, Harry is given the message to suppress his shameful
> weepiness & express pain w/anger & rage instead, as he does in OOTP.
> As Sydney said it - "Ignore the crying & the pain; beat up some Bad
> People instead! You'll feel better!"
> 
> In another sense, those very qualities of which he is most ashamed,
> most eager to repress, are the very qualities associated w/the
> "other". By beating up the "other", he's also fighting against those
> qualities in himself that he's been taught to repress. The "Bad
> people" are also the shameful emotions - and by getting rid of one, 
he
> can get rid of the other. So the Evil Slytherin is also the crying
> suffering thing that he wants to stuff out of sight... that's King's
> Cross in a nutshell.
> 
> That's classic shadow projection. The shadow isn't bad, it's just 
what
> you think you shouldn't be. And Gryffindors & Harry get a relentless
> message that they must *always* be brave & courageous & strong &
> daring. If you're anything else, you're not a "true Gryffindor" & 
have
> no identity. This practically begs for someone that they can project
> all those unacceptable non-Gryf traits upon & maintain their 
idealized
> self-image. Slytherins function very well as the scapegoat for
> Gryfindors' sins & the projected shadow for the Gryffindors' own
> unacceptable traits. They NEED the Slytherins around so that they
> don't have to face themselves in the mirror. IMO, this is also why 
we
> see very little personal growth from the Trio - they've never 
learned
> to accept & integrate their perceived flaws, but have instead
> projected them outward onto the "other".

va32h:

What do you think could have (or perhaps ought to have) happened in 
Deathly Hallows to change this outcome? Would "one good Slytherin" in 
the RoR have been enough to change this tendency to treat Slyterins 
as the "other"?

I ask because I have some of the same discomforts you've expressed 
about the book, and while I've been blaming this particular book for 
being a poor end to the series, I am starting to wonder whether one 
book could do enough to rectify the kind of scapegoating and 
projecting that has been going on for the past six books. 

va32h