Harry's character development: Static or Dynamic? Was: Saving Private Draco

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 183733

> > Magpie:
> > I considered him to have done that in PS when he attacked Crabbe 
and 
> > Goyle and also won the last ten points for standing up to the 
Trio.  
> > 
> > Neville grows up and there are more superficial changes to him, 
but I 
> > think Neville's choices show who he is in first year and he just 
> > keeps showing that same character throughout. Other people 
finally 
> > see him as the brave person he always was, and Neville loses his 
> > outer timid demeanor, but I really don't think his character 
> > fundamentally changes at all. It might take Harry longer to see 
him 
> > clearly.
> 
> Zara:
> To be considered dynamic, a character does not need to change 
> fundamentally, at least not according to the reference I looked it 
up 
> in. A change in insight or attitude qualifies. Neville was always 
> brave, I agree. But in DH, he became a leader, and not merely by 
being 
> brave as he always was, and happening to win a following thereby, 
but 
> consciously. He explains to Harry in DH that he stood up to the 
> Carrows, because he had seen Harry doing it in OotP with Umbridge, 
and 
> saw/felt how important that was to him and to others.


Magpie:
But this happens off-screen and we're told about it. I'm not denying 
that Neville goes from a scaredy-cat who always messes things up 
because he's nervous and a leader who's confident. That is a change. 
It's just fundamental character is so important in this universe it's 
hard for me to consider him fundamentally changed. 

As a character I just tend to think of him always playing the same 
role he played from Book I. That to me seems very much the same 
throughout the books, starting back in PS. He's certainly changing. 
He's not completely static. He goes from being unconfident to being 
confident. It's an important change. It's just that fundemental 
character seems so important in this story, and Neville's choices 
showed who he was back in first year just as they did in seventh. He 
went from being the scaredy-cat who turned brave in the crunch to 
being the mild-mannered guy who turned brave in the crunch (always 
using Harry as his model). We're told he became a leader but he's not 
doing that on page because we're back in the woods with the Trio.

-m