[HPforGrownups] Re: Secrets (Long) OLD POST REPOST

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 186398

Alla:

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.

Shelley:
I think it is the first- it's not necessarily the KEY to his maturity, but 
certainly Harry had to know and understand what had happened "to him" or 
about him so that he could understand his purpose in life- to be the one to 
end Voldemort, and so yes, that mission was part of his maturity. But to 
know and understand everything of the motives and actions of "others" 
(namely Dumbledore and Snape), I think part of Harry's maturity is to accept 
that he doesn't know, and doesn't always need to know, all the juicy details 
of the lives of others.

Snape's revelations, in fact, I found to be more of Rowling appeasing to the 
fan base who were demanding that Rowling explain who Snape was, when in 
reality, Harry wouldn't have found out the facts of his childhood (abused 
child, witness his teenage father torturing a teenage Snape) and Harry 
wouldn't have been privileged to know Snape's pure memories of promising to 
guard Harry after being so in love with his mother, making a deal with 
Dumbledore and the reason why he became a double agent to put his life at 
risk in the hands of Voldemort. Because of these revelations, Harry matures 
a lot, but the reasons/purpose for these revelations were not to mature a 
Harry as much as tell a story to the readers who we demanding to know the 
Snape-story.

With Dumbledore's past, we find Harry angry that Dumbledore didn't share his 
past with Harry, but really, that part of Harry is being (unreasonably) 
selfish. Being who Dumbledore was- headmaster and very busy- he didn't have 
time as a retired grandpa to sit with the youngsters and spin tales of days 
gone past, and so it's unreasonable of Harry to think that Dumbledore even 
had to the time to explain all of his youth to Harry, let alone have the 
need to. Part of Harry's maturity in that situation is just to accept that 
he didn't need to have all the explanations of who Dumbledore was to just 
trust him, like the others did in the Order of the Phoenix. Part of his 
maturing was to understand that he was meddling in someone's private life to 
seek all those answers, and to accept that if that person wants to share 
their failures and early life, that's their priority and right to keep that 
to themselves.

Real kids grow up not knowing or understanding the motives of the adults 
around them who make decisions for them, and in this respect, the whole 
series of Harry Potter is unrealistic. I think it might have been more 
intriguing to have Harry not know the Snape-story, and grow up and mature 
anyway, and then do a side story of Snape and his motives from his angle, so 
that the two remain separate and we get the full picture (or more of it) as 
two separate journeys. Instead, Rowling pulls a convenient trick of Snape 
not-dead-yet, and Harry confidently-there-at-the-right-time to have Snape 
pull out his memories to give to Harry, and I found that to be unrealistic. 
Snape had no reason to give Harry any memories- as a selfish git he was 
portrayed all his life, I would have expected him not to. Snape was never 
one to share his life- I didn't expect him to start the moment he was going 
to die. Again, I think it was for the sake of the readers the Rowling has 
Snape pull a very unusual stunt for him- to tell Harry of his personal 
motives. Harry would have matured anyway without knowing. I think I would 
have respected Harry a lot more if he forgave Snape out of the pure motive 
of that forgiveness is the right thing to do, rather than to have Harry 
forgive Snape simply because he didn't know all the rest of the story 
before, and that he had been wrong about Snape. I think I would have liked 
the story better if we had Harry mature, forgive Snape, and then have a 
delay "will" of Snape be delivered to Harry in the form of Snape's memories 
so that Harry comes to understand that his forgiveness really did match up 
with what he should have done.

But, for the record, I think Harry is wrong to forgive Snape, or rather, if 
I were in Harry's shoes, I wouldn't have forgiven Snape to the degree that 
Harry does. For me, I may have understood Snape's motives, but that in no 
way would have made me see him the way that Harry does, to forgive him so 
completely that he rewrites all of what Snape does as a "hero" and have 
admiration to the degree of naming my child after this loser, and to seek to 
repaint his picture for the rest of the WW that he was really a double-spy 
working for Dumbledore. I just can't see myself doing any of those things 
that Harry did, but this is Rowling's story she's telling and not mine.