On the perfection of moral virtues

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 168820

> > >>Betsy Hp:
> > > <snip> 
> > > Huzzah, Ron.
> > > Only not.  Because the very next year, Ron has the *exact* same 
> > > problem.  
> 
> > >>Pippin:
> > Except it's not the *exact* same problem, because Harry wasn't
> > around for the big game in OOP. Ignoring jeers from the Slytherins
> > is one thing, ignoring the fear that he might flub up in front of
> > Harry is another.
> > <snip>
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> Except as far as Ron's concerned it *is* the exact same problem 
> because as far as Ron knew, Harry was there watching his every move.
> 
> "You didn't watch?" he said faintly, looking from one to the 
> other.  "You didn't see me make any of those saves?" [OotP scholastic 
> hardback p.704]

Pippin:
Um, no. Disgraced Harry, watching from the sidelines because
he's been banned for life  isn't a patch on QuidditchCaptain!Harry,
who is responsible for  evaluating Ron's performance and could 
throw him off the team if he's not good enough.

Moreover, it's not Ron's story, it's Harry's, and I think it's really
Harry's growth that's important here. This is the first time that
Harry showed patience and understanding when a friend let him
down. I think it's important that the reader gets a bit frustrated
with Ron's lack of progress, because it points up the fact that
Harry didn't. Harry didn't get so angry that he gave up on Ron,
and that's very different from the way he treated Hermione in 
PoA or Ron in GoF, or even Dumbledore in OOP.

> Betsy Hp:
> But this isn't a "realistic" story in that we're not dealing with 
> fully fleshed totally real characters.  There's a level of the 
> fantastic here. 

Pippin:
There's a tension in the story itself between Harry seeing
his role models as  wish-fulfillment figures who can do the 
impossible and make it look easy (James, Dumbledore) 
and the not yet articulated realization that if their 
attainments were truly the result of perfection, they would 
be forever beyond Harry's reach. 

JKR's ultimate aim, I would venture, is not to transform
her characters. It's to transform *us*, or at least to make
us see that transformation is not beyond *our* reach. I
doubt it matters to her how much we dislike the characters
as they are in Book Six as long as we don't get so alienated
that we don't read Book Seven. In fact the darker it looks
for our heroes now the better. They have to be in more 
moral danger now than they've ever been, or whatever 
moral danger they do face would be anti-climactic. And
she's said they're all going to be tested.
 
Betsy HP:
> And for me, their stunted growth, their inability to face and 
> overcome their flaws (and some of their flaws I find pretty 
> repugnant) is *frustrating*.  I mean, I'm reading to be entertained, 
> so yes, I *want* to see change. 

Pippin:
Eh, they're teenagers, they're supposed to be repugnant --
it's nature's way of getting you to push 'em out of the nest :)
(IMO) 

But I think she knows exactly what she's doing in letting her
characters get so mean to each other. She's just following
her ideas to their logical conclusions. If nobody is noble by 
birth,  then  no one is born knowing how to wield power 
responsibly. 

The characters have to learn that.  JKR seems to show
bullying as a phase that some kids go through as they're
learning about power, just as they often go through 
superficial and potentially damaging relationships as 
they learn about love.

Hopefully they grow out of it before they do any permanent 
damage to themselves or one another, and please, please,
before they have children of their own, but the suspense in 
the story comes from all the horrible examples of those who 
did not.

The  adult bullies, IMO, are people who didn't grow out
of it, or who skipped that stage as kids only to fall into it as 
adults, like Crouch Sr. She also shows us *why* they're like that. 

They seem evil, but they're not bullies *because* they're evil, they're 
bullies because they're damaged or fearful or ignorant or lazy or some
combination of the four. Those characteristics are, of course, the
shadow side of the four Houses: noble Slytherin, brave Gryffindor,
learned Ravenclaw and hard-working Hufflepuff.

Maybe in Book Seven both Gryffindor and Slytherin will re-imagine 
themselves. IMO, Gryffindors need to realize that they're more than 
"not Slytherin" and Slytherin also needs to become a house of 
acceptance rather than denial:  to accept that to hunger for power
is not a sign of nobility but rather of damage, and so to turn
their quest from the false ideal of purity to the true ideal of
wholeness. The snake is also the symbol of healing.

Pippin