MAGICkal elITE

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 186389

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "kempermentor" <iam.kemper at ...> wrote:

Kemper:
> I'm not a fan of Harry as Everyman nor Harry as Jesus figure.  

<snip>

> So with man and deity eliminated that only leaves an alien who can go through the motions of being human but not quite mastering the emotions of one.  Harry is Superman (with that 'saving people' thing) whose kryptonite doesn't exist. 

Geoff:
Looking at the choices which we have been considering in this 
thread, on several occasions I have said that I regard Harry as 
an everyman (with a small "e").

Even as ordinary people, however, within each of us there is the 
potential to be a hero. It may not involve being a national hero 
but may call on us to step outside our usual parameters possibly 
because of an emergency. The sort of scenario I envisage might 
include: someone dashing in front of a car to rescue a child; 
going into a river to save someone from drowning; going to help 
a person being mugged and so on. We may not consider ourselves 
special but sometimes events intervene.

If I may misquote Shakespeare, "Some are born heroes, some 
achieve heroism and some have heroism thrust upon them".

Harry, I believe, fits into the last category. He sees himself as a 
very ordinary person:
`"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. 
I don't think I can be a wizard."'
(PS "The Keeper of the Keys" p,47 UK edition)

He feels uncomfortable when he is thrown into the limelight:
`Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left his dormitory 
next day. People queuing outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to 
get a look at him or doubled back to pass him in the corridors 
again, staring. Harry wishes they wouldn't because he was trying 
to concentrate on finding his way to classes.'
(PS "The Potions Master" p. 98 UK edition)

Just a couple of early quotes to show that he didn't want to be a 
celebrity. All through the books, we see him trying avoid this. He 
indicates in the Hogs Head meeting in OOTP that he gets too much 
attention directed to him. He is at heart, one for the quiet life, 
perhaps insecure.  This why I see him as a typical everyman. Maybe 
we all secretly hanker after fame and yet, when we see the life style 
of people who are constantly in the media, do we really seek it? I 
do not think that I would want to be Prime Minister, or a TV star or 
a sports star because it would erode the time I like to keep for myself: 
walking the dog on a deserted moor, going unnoticed through town 
and I am sure that that is what Harry would go for if the opportunity
existed instead of the rumours, half-truths and myths that the 
Wizarding World has concocted about him – both good and bad 
depending on the state of digestion of the Minister of Magic or the 
editor of the Daily Prophet.

The problem facing any person of note is that they have a public 
persona and a private one and it is often the public one on which 
they are judged and on which people want to meet them. Not many 
see the real person.

I have said previously that I have a soft spot for Draco Malfoy 
because I believe that he has virtues which have been squashed by 
the influence of his father and pureblood society at large. 

In this regard, I believe that he and Harry have things in common. 
They became fierce rivals from the very beginning because what 
they had been told or had instilled into them created a collision 
course. Malfoy sees Harry as Saint Potter, and in common with the 
populace at large the Boy Who Lived and Chosen One. Harry sees 
Draco as an evil, potential Death Eater, arrogant, boastful of his 
position and someone seeking to get him into trouble. 

It Is only late in their school careers when events occur when I 
think that they both begin to see the other's real self. Harry sees 
Draco wavering in his determination to kill Dumbledore and the 
doubts surfacing in the confrontation on the Tower; he sees him 
at Malfoy Manor where he refuses to identify Harry and is obviously 
fearful and reluctant. Harry's rescue of Malfoy from the Fiendfyre 
when he could easily left him possibly stems from this. Perhaps it 
is a tacit recognition of these that leads to the nods at the railway 
station years later. I remain disappointed that JKR did not build 
more of a rapprochment between these two into the end story but 
that is a personal view. Others will disagree with me and I still fail 
to get excited over Snape – although I suppose he fits my early 
criteria of someone thrust into heroism.

But to me, Harry remains an everyman who was drawn into exceptional 
action and, if I might digress into real world events like the military 
personnel  we have remembered today in the UK as part of our 
withdrawal from Basra.