On the perfection of moral virtues

[wynnleaf]

No: HPFGUIDX 168735

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Marion Ros" <mros at ...> wrote:

> But back to the previous alinea. 
> Has Harry ever changed in all those years in attitude? Has he grown
as a person? 
> Personally - and this is my beef with the series - I can't see *any*
change. Harry was a judgemental, self-absorded, rude eleven-year-old
and six year later Harry is a judgemental, self-absorded, rude
sixteen-year-old.
> I'm still waiting for Harry to *learn*.
> I'm hoping Harry will finally, *finally* realise that he *needs* to
change, to learn, in Book 7.
> 

wynnleaf
I strongly agree with your post and clipped just the final part with
your questions.  I'd expand it to wonder if *anyone* of the central
characters has truly grown and developed in terms of learning to be a
better person?  Maybe Ron in some ways.

The funny thing about Harry's character is that he's presented as
though we're to think he's *already* the "better person," simply
because he's so much nicer than the Dursleys (presented as an extreme
example of prejudice and general nastiness), accepts Ron in spite of
his being poor (unlike "bad" Draco), likes Hagrid in spite of his
being a "servant" (once again contrasted to "bad" Draco), and accepts
the somewhat bossy Hermione.  

Dumbledore praises Harry's ability to love, so we are led to believe
that Harry loves more than the average person.  In fact, he doesn't. 
He loves people who particularly love him in return.  The notable
factor of Harry's love isn't that it's unusually strong, but that
someone from Harry's background would have a more or less normal
capacity to love in the first place.  But we -- and even Harry -- are
directly led to believe that his degree of love is unusually
commendable.  

I think this is partly what I have a problem with in the way Harry's
character flaws are portrayed, as though not only does he not have
certain flaws, but that he in fact has great strengths in the very
areas  of some of his greatest flaws.  

Harry *does* have the "saving people" thing, although it seems far
more akin to a fear, sometimes justified, that no one else can be
trusted to take care of anyone that powers his desire to save people.  

But back to what Harry has learned.  Harry has learned a lot about
magic, backstories of characters, etc -- facts, in other words.  He's
learned that he can be quick witted in a crisis. But that doesn't
develop the character.

Harry's learned a bit about leadership, some teaching ability.  But
once again -- it's not really building character.  I'm not sure that
his leadership capabilities are really very strong.  

Harry's "capacity to love" and his "saving people thing" are exactly
the same as they've always been.  He has not developed in terms of
learning to forgive, nor, as was pointed out, has he learned from his
mistakes, but instead makes the same mistakes repeatedly.  Harry 
continuously finds that he's trusted the wrong person, that he has led
others into great danger, that he's wrong about people's motivations,
etc.  He is even more willing to be outwardly dishonest (an entire
year with the HBP potions book), and even more willing to be dishonest
with himself (feeding a case in his mind that Snape is to blame for
Sirius' death).

One might argue that JKR couldn't let Harry grow out of these
weaknesses until the last book, because otherwise you'd end up with
the later books being rather boring as Harry would already have
learned and grown through his biggest weaknesses.  I will hope for him
to learn a great deal in DH, although I don't see why he couldn't have
grown out of at least one or two of his more negative character traits
earlier.

wynnleaf