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

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 183761

> Potioncat:
> So, can it be considered dynamic if what the reader sees appears to 
> change? I understand Black behaves very differently at the end of 
> PoA, than he did in the middle--but I'm not sure 'he' changed as much 
> as our perspective of him changed.

Zara:
That would just make it debatable. Someone who thinks he was changed by 
his experiences, would interpret Sirius as dynamic. Someone who thinks 
this was just a case of us getting to know Sirius better, would 
disagree.

I think perhaps this is the basis of my source's (Wikipedia) claim that 
usually only the protagonist and antagonist are dynamic. In a novel of 
limited length, how many characters can we hope to know well enough to 
recognize the difference between a change, and simply learning 
something new about them?

> Potioncat: 
> Pettigrew! We were told he was a hero, but we find out later he was 
> not. Did the character develop or did our perspectives change? (and 
> does it matter that he went from 4 legs to 2?)

Zara:
We don't know. Certainly, he was never the brave little Peter who 
confronted the evil traitorous Death Eater Sirius - that revelation 
does not make him dynamic, it makes us enlightened about what really 
happened. But was his decision to join Voldemort a change? I don't 
think we know enough to say, but again it is open to interpretation. I 
think not, I think it was a logical move for James's little sycophant.