Secrets (Long) OLD POST REPOST

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 186396

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/957?threaded=1&l=1

Peg:
Another long-winded essay-post.

The Harry Potter books are, when you boil them down to their essence,
the unfolding of a
mystery, and what that mystery means to our main character. The seminal
scene which sets the
series in motion is that fatal night when James and Lily were killed
and, paradoxically, Harry
thwarted Voldemort. And the central engine of the series is our drive to
find out, slowly, book by book, what happened that night? What was that
all about? How and why? As we learn more, we, along with Harry,
discover other mysteries and secrets. Who is Sirius, and what is his
role in all this? What about Peter Pettigrew? Or Snape? As Harry
understands more and more (and we do, too, as his audience), Harry comes
to understand himself and his relation to others more clearly. When he
understands all in the 7th book, he will be fully an adult.

Alla:

So it is a very old post, the first one in our database of recommended posts pre OOP. Since it is about secrets, I thought it will be interesting to look at it almost nine years after in light of canon being complete and whether the observations still hold water, or not, etc. I am deliberately snipping very little or nothing at all, but you can go and reread the whole post if you wish to.
Do you agree or disagree that central drive of the series was to uncover what happened that night in GH? Do you think that the key of Harry's maturity was to know everything and to understand everything, or something different?

Because really especially in light of recent discussions, I think that the key to Harry's maturity was to understand that he does not need to know everything and some things are better taken on faith, etc. However, we did learn A LOT of secrets with Harry, so I do not know.


Peg:
Speaking metaphorically, discovering the truth is, for Harry, in a way,
the drawing of a map depicting his personal world and his relationship
to it. As he gets more information, the map becomes more accurate
until, presumably, in the 7th book, the map will be close enough to the
truth to carry him into adulthood. Put another way, as Harry slowly
pierces the layer of mystery and secrets surrounding himself, it's as if
he is chiseling away at the marble surrounding the statue of himself
buried in a stone. When all the veils are brushed away, he will see
himself, and his relation to the world, the way he truly is.

Alla:

I just want to say – soooo beautifully written.

Now let's look at secrets, as handled by Our Team vs. the Other Team.

Peg:
Dumbledore, Harry's guide, seems to be teaching him that secrets are
best kept until they are
"ripe," but they must told when the time is right. Significantly, they
must be told by the person
who the secret belongs to. Examples: Dumbledore knows that Harry has
secrets, and encourages him to open up about them ("is there anything
you'd like to tell me, Harry? Anything at all?"), but doesn't force
Harry to tell before he is ready. When Harry inadvertently stumbles
upon Neville's secret, Dumbledore tells him to keep the secret until
Neville is ready to tell it himself.

Hermione does the same for Lupin, concealing that he is a werewolf,
reasoning that it is not her
secret to tell.

Dumbledore also keeps Snape's secret, and Lupin's secret. (Incidentally,
the fact that Dumbledore respects the integrity of Snape's secret,
whatever it is, is one of the most effective arguments to me that Snape
is Our Man Snape, truly allied with the powers of light, as surly as he
is.)

When events change, Dumbledore will prod people to disclose their
secrets because
circumstances make it necessary--but still, he will give them control by
allowing them to reveal
it themselves.  <SNIP>


 
Alla:

Eh, well I agree that Dumbledore keeps other people secrets, allowing them to reveal themselves when they feel time is right, I however (as known) rather disagree that Dumbledore has any idea when Harry is mature enough to handle them, and that his timing of not revealing so many things  **as related to Harry's need to know** was rather lousy IMO.

Peg:
Now let's look at the Other Team in contrast:

1) members of the Other Team reveal secrets before they are ripe, (and
not their own secrets,
either). They also betray secrets entrusted to them. Exhibit 1: Rita
Skeeter. Exhibit 2: Wormtail, betraying James and Lily to Voldemort.
Here you see how secrets and how they are handled (or betrayed) touches
upon issues of loyalty, which I wrote about in one of my previous
posts.

2) when revealing another person's secret, members of the Other Team
will put as negative an
interpretation on it as possible. Again, Rita Skeeter is a good example,
putting as much
insinuation as possible into her stories about Hagrid, Hermione and
Harry. Draco Malfoy is another, who usually worms out what Harry would
like to have remain private and puts as embarrassing an interpretation
on it as possible (e.g., the faintness Harry feels around dementors). <SNIP>

Alla:

Sure, Rita shows it in book seven too, I agree – as negative interpretation as possible. I do think by the way, that  her job IS to reveal the secrets, as any journalist and if all she did was writing the truth, I would say that no matter how much people get angry at her, it is her job. But she does not just write the truth, no?

Peg:
3) conversely, the Other Team keeps secrets PAST the point that they
should be revealed. Barty Crouch, Sr. is an example, as are the Death
eaters, hiding their loyalty to Voldemort. Winky and Dobby, too, while
under the Other team's influence, make the mistake of keeping secrets
that should be told, out of a kind of mistaken loyalty.


4) secrets are used to plot, to trick, to trap, to wriggle out of
consequences for one's own
behavior. Examples: Barty Crouch, Jr., Wormtail, Voldemort, Lucius
Malfoy. (H, R and Hr offer a contrasting example: they keep the secret
about Hagrid keeping an illegal dragon. But when caught coming down
from the tower, they do not lie. They simply accept their punishment
stoically. Malfoy, I think, would have lied.)

Alla:

I think Dumbledore used soooo many secrets to plot and trap. 



Peg:
<SNIP>
Afterthought, related: It has been commented by many critics of the
series that Harry is a bad
example, evil, etc., because he lies. That's probably a whole other
post, but I'll just say that Harry's moral education is being
demonstrated by the way he is learning about how to handle secrets and
how to trust. He has come from a situation (in the Dursley household)
where he couldn't share anything about himself. Now, he is beginning to
trust and to build true, strong relationships, with teachers
(Dumbledore) parent figures (Sirius and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley) and
friends. He has to figure out as he goes how much to reveal and how much
to keep to himself in all of these relationships, and he finds figuring
out the balancing line rather confusing. See, for example, in the GoF
the interesting bit about his uncertainty about whether he should have
revealed to Sirius that his scar was hurting. He struggles to figure out
who he should entrust with this secret. When he hits upon Sirius as the
best person to confide in, he is relieved--but then he becomes angry at
himself and tries to "take the secret back" (my scar really didn't hurt)
when Sirius takes Harry's news seriously and reacts as a parent would,
by coming north. Learning how to handle secrets properly is a long,
complicated learning process, and a very important part of growing up.

Alla:

Love.