Harry: "I WANT THE TRUTH!" (Was: Seeking the truth )--LONG

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 177799

> SSSusan:
> What we discover in DH is a DD who has "a thing" about power, as in
> a thing about a desire for power, a desire to be The One who calls
> the shots, who decides what should be done, who determines who
> should get the information – and not just who but when, how and how
> MUCH information. It really became clear to me that Harry's quest
> for the whole truth really was tripped up very much by this trait of
> DD's, and I really wanted to know: Who was right? Who was right
> about just how much of The Truth Harry needed/deserved to know, and
> about when he should know it?

Jen: Thanks for collecting all this information and offering some 
very thoughtful questions, Susan. :)

Thinking more about your comment above, I don't know if it was a 
thirst for power that led Dumbledore to withold information from 
Harry (and Snape) so much as the reason Aberforth mentioned in The 
Missing Mirror: "I knew my brother, Potter.  He learned secrecy at 
our mother's knee.  Secrets and lies, that's how we grew up, and 
Albus...he was a natural." (p. 562, Am. Ed.)  Dumbledore learned how 
to compartmentalize his life at an early age, hiding family secrets 
his mother didn't want discussed with the outside world, like the 
attack on Ariana & her resulting problems and the real reason behind 
Percival's attack on the Muggles.  Later, he added immense guilt 
about Ariana's death to his list.

This is somewhat speculative since it's not directly linked in the 
story, but Dumbledore's almost obsessive quest to defeat Voldemort 
seemed linked to his past with Grindelwald, his shame over waiting so 
long to take action.  

For all these reasons, I think of his secrecy/witholding of 
information as grounded in his psychology and history as much as his 
lust for power (and I could make a case that his need for power also 
stemmed from the powerlessness of the situation that the Dumbledores 
found themselves in with Ariana's attack & Percival's forced 
abandonment of the the family; these events likely fueled DD's 
interest in wizard dominance at any rate).

Trauma can offer explanations but can't wholly justify actions 
though; there's still the question of whether witholding information 
from Harry was right.  It made sense within the story for me that 
Dumbledore had taken time to learn about Voldemort and thus parceled 
out information to both Snape or Harry because Voldemort had access 
to both of their minds when he returned.  And since I accept DD's 
explanation at the end of OOTP for why he didn't tell 
Harry 'everything,' the question for me is whether he was right to 
withold information from Harry once he knew Voldemort was practicing 
Occlumency against him. 

SSSusan:
> Carol has talked about Harry's quest for the truth in terms of his
> also being a Seeker. I admit that, although I am one who can see
> Harry rather as Everyman on his Christian Journey (and, thus, *that*
> kind of a Seeker), I haven't seen this particular final-book 
> searching & grasping for the truth in a Christian sense. 
<snip>
> I see it as more of a pragmatic seeking, if that makes sense, rather
> than any kind of Christian seeking of God's will or whatever. In a
> way, I guess I see Harry's seeking for the whole truth as a personal
> seeking – some might call it even a selfish seeking, a personal
> quest, while others might call it a sort of self-actualizing seeking
> or as a means of more fully understanding what it is he `needs' to
> do in order to make this more his OWN decision to do.

Jen:  Guess which one I think it is. <g>  I was looking for an old 
post the other day and ran across something I said that still holds 
true for me after DH:

'Just because there are some elements of classic stories to the 
books, it doesn't mean JKR is going for a classic tale along the 
lines of The Secret Garden, where the children grow to be better 
people in the sense of daily interactions with others. There are 
enough Jungian elements and alchemy elements to suggest JKR could be 
talking about the transformation of the Self as a whole rather than 
the elemental parts that make up a person [....] but Harry will 
finally be free to make choices from his authentic self as he sheds 
the self formed from the elements of Voldemort's action, Lily's 
sacrifice, the Maruader legacy and Dumbledore's plan.'  

Harry had to know the truth to find his authentic self IOW.

*******************************************************************
"Could DD have let such things happen? ...Harry thought of Godric's
Hollow, of graves DD had never mentioned there; he thought of
mysterious objects left without explanation in Dumbledore's will,
and a resentment swelled in the darkness. Why hadn't DD told him?
Why hadn't he explained? Had DD actually cared about Harry at all?
Or had Harry been nothing more than a tool to be polished and honed,
but not trusted, never confided in?" [DH, US hardback, p. 177]

SSSusan:
> Wow.  For me, these are The Big Questions.  Why did DD withhold
> some of these things?  Why hadn't he shared more?  Why did he once 
> tell Harry (at the end of OotP) that he needed to and would now 
> tell him *everything* and yet, so obviously at this point, ended up 
> telling him much less than everything?  Did he keep things from 
> Harry for a good reason?  DID he care about Harry?  Was caring the 
> motivation for not telling him? Or was being in control, being the
> one with the power, what was motivating his telling and his not
> telling?  Did he TRUST Harry?

Jen: I was surprised Harry felt Dumbledore should have told him about 
his personal life.  They were linked by Godric's Hollow but their 
relationship wasn't particularly personal, not like father or 
grandfather and son.  Even when Dumbledore expressed feelings for 
Harry at the end of OOTP, and Harry displayed searing grief about his 
death, their relationship was first and foremost Harry's unique 
connection with Voldemort and how Dumbledore could help Harry defeat 
him.  I thought this omission was troublesome to Harry because he was 
already mad and hurt about Dumbledore.  The idea of Harry and 
Dumbledore visiting the graves of their lost ones together struck me 
as more emotional than rational.

lealess:
> Trust is also a key to the story. Trust is faith. Did Dumbledore
> have faith in his followers, enough to give them the truth, to give
> them the tools they would need to defeat Voldemort? I think
> Dumbledore expected his followers, especially Harry, to find the
> truth within themselves, to just *know* it, to reject the path of
> intellect and ambitious effort and follow the simpler path of faith
> and following the word of God (or Dumbledore, in this case). In the 
> end, a Seeker can only rely on instinct to follow the movements of
> the Snitch.

Jen: I agree and disagree. :)  Dumbledore had a hands-off strategy 
with most of his followers, which I intepreted as him not wanting 
their reliance to be only on him but each other.  He encourages 
Harry's relationship with Ron/Hermione to that end.  I agree that he 
wanted Harry to find truth within himself, come up with his own 
answers in DH particularly, because what Dumbledore believed Harry 
must do to defeat Voldemort required that Harry absolutely believe 
in what he was doing.  For the same reason, Dumbledore doesn't 
withold the information about the Hallows from Harry because in the 
end it must be Harry's choice and not Dumbledore's.  I believe that 
interpretation has back up in King's Cross: 

"But I should have died - I didn't defend myself!  I meant to let him 
kill me!" 

"And that," said Dumbledore, "will, I think, have made all the 
difference."  (p. 708, Am. ed.)

Jen: I undertsood that moment to imply that the ancient magic 
wouldn't have worked if there was any trace of doubt or hesitation 
inside Harry.

Whew, that's all I can come up with for my *first* post on this 
thread. <g>

Jen, who thought of the movie 'A Few Good Men' and the Jack Nicholson 
character Jessep screaming 'YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH' at Tom Cruise 
when she saw SSSusan's subject line. ;)