DD and Harry and Dursleys Re: Christian Forgiveness and Snape

[va32h]

No: HPFGUIDX 164343

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "kat7555" <kat7555 at ...> wrote:
> I think blood protection is the lame excuse Dumbledore used to justify
> leaving Harry with the Dursleys.  As a social worker I would never 
tell
> a victim of child abuse that their circumstances were character
> building.  Lily seems to have grown up in a perfectly normal family
> except for a jealous sister.  I don't blame Sirius for buying Harry an
> expensive gift.   As he said in his letter he was making up for lost
> time.
> 


va32h here:

When it comes to discussion of Dumbledore's leaving Harry with the 
Dursleys, I feel it is unfair to look at the situation without 
considering the context of what it really is: an orphan-makes-good 
tale. 

Harry's suffering at the hands of the Dursleys is a convention of that 
genre. He gets treated badly, and we sympathize with him, and it is all 
the more sweet when his tormentors get their comeuppance. 

Now I know when I said something to this effect before, it was pointed 
out that a good writer makes their plot contrivances a believable part 
of the story. And I agree. Which is what JKR has done, with the 
protection of blood, and the humble upbringing.

Of course we adults, who know all too well that real abuse exists, and 
that children who are really abused are not likely to turn out as well 
as Harry, know that there can never be a good enough reason to leave 
ababy in those circumstances. If Harry were a real child, Dumbledore's 
action could never be justified, never explained. 

But JKR can't really have it both ways, can she? She can't have her 
requisite horrible childhood for her hero, without having her story, 
which is set after all in modern time, be subject to modern standards 
of what is and is not abuse. 

It's the same problem I had with the remake of The Parent Trap. The 
plot requires that identical twins be raised without ever knowing each 
other, but we know that no judge would ever award custody that way, and 
it's cruel to let a child think her other parent is dead or missing 
when they are not. 

Interestingly enough, my daughter, who is 11, and her friends of the 
same age, have no problem with things like this. They accept the 
Dursleys, the very bad uncles in Lemony Snicket, and all sorts of 
situations that seem cruel to children. 

va32h/Barbara