[HPforGrownups] Re: Unforgivables.

[Maeg]

No: HPFGUIDX 173642


On Jul 29, 2007, at 12:30 AM, eggplant107 wrote:

> And I was not at all surprised at Harry's reaction; in fact I'd say
> JKR had to include a scene like that for the character to ring true.
> Harry is still a very good person but let's face facts, he's not an
> eleven year old boy getting on the Hogwarts express for the first
> time. How many people have tried to kill Harry in the last seven
> years, how many horrors has he seen? If somebody ties you to a
> tombstone and tortures you so hideously you want to die, well, you're
> just not going to be the same person afterward; I'm not saying you're
> going to become a monster or anything, but you're not going to be the
> same. I am convinced that the battle scared veterans of Iwo Jima are
> very good people, but after the hell they went through to expect them
> to be squeamish when they hear a howl of pain from the enemy after
> they pull the trigger is just not realistic.

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear: I didn't have a problem with  
Harry's immediate reaction to throwing an Unforgivable Curse.

But I do have a problem with him having no apparent psychological  
repercussions. From what I've read about those who survive war, it's  
more the awful things they do -- rather than are done to them or  
their friends -- that haunt them. Killing and torturing others does  
lasting damage to one's psyche. This is recently become a bit area of  
study (with the rise in understanding of post-traumatic stress  
disorder) and JKR herself used this quite effectively in her horcrux  
theory.

So, to see Harry totally unconcerned, well, it didn't ring true with  
reality and with JKR's themes of the series.

Maeg

My mind isn't always in the gutter -- sometimes it comes out to feed.