Lack of re-examination (was:Re: Secrets (Long) OLD POST REPOST)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 186587

 
> Betsy Hp:
> I'm not asking JKR to *tell* us how to think, I'm pointing out that she doesn't issue us an invitation to think in the first place.  I never said Harry had to come to a specific conclusion after reexamining what Fake!Moody did to Draco.  Perhaps he'd reach a similar conclusion to yours, perhaps he'd not reach a solid conclusion at all.  But just by raising the question the reader would be invited to think things through themselves.

Pippin:
What we're invited to think through is the larger question of valuing mercy over vengeance, of choosing love over hate.

At the beginning of OOP, Harry considers using transfiguration as an outlet for "fourteen year's hatred of Dudley pounding in his veins" and the only thing really stopping him is the knowledge that he'd be expelled "from that freak school" -- it's certainly not mercy for Dudley. But later Harry shows that he does value forgiveness over vengeance, and the reader is invited to consider that. Harry accepts the hand that Dudley holds out to him in DH. 

Certainly we're not working against the text  when we see that no matter what Draco, Crabbe and Goyle have done, even attempting murder, Harry doesn't think they deserve to die in flames. 
Ron, OTOH, is not about to be sorry that Crabbe is dead. But then he's always been more cruel than Harry, and the reader is invited to feel a bit superior to Ron for that.

> 
> Betsy Hp:
> But Harry is supposed to be growing up as the books progress.  And I thought you'd said a clever child would reread the books and pick up on the moral issues in this scene (the issues Harry missed)?  Which means that by book end, the young reader no longer identifies with Harry.  They're smarter than him and Harry never catches up.

Pippin:
Harry doesn't just ignore the idea that people grow in moral awareness, he angrily denies it. He rejects the notion that young James and young Dumbledore weren't grown up enough to realize that what they were doing was wrong. He feels that he has a trustworthy moral sense and they should have had one too. He isn't ready to confront the idea that his own moral awareness might change, and that he isn't as morally capable now as he will become.

I think JKR knows that a lot of her readers would react the same way to the suggestion that their moral sense is not yet mature, so she doesn't try to force feed it to them. She deals with it obliquely. Readers who know, because they've already experienced it, that moral awareness can increase with maturity can see this happening to Harry, while a reader who isn't ready for that idea doesn't have to cope with it. 

Children's books, said Tolkien, should be like their clothes, and allow for growth.

It's like the way JKR treats Harry's sexual awareness. Personally, I could do without the chest monster, and I'd have more fun with an unexpurgated view of Harry's thoughts. But I certainly wouldn't assume that I'm working against the text to think that Harry's thoughts were a bit (okay, a lot) racier than JKR portrays. 

But there's a limit to what younger readers can deal with. The sexually aware reader is going to be ahead of Harry, and stay ahead of Harry at least in terms of what the text is explicit about. But we can assume that happily married Harry has caught up.

> 
> Betsy Hp:
> Okay.  And Harry, by his own free will, refuses moral responsibility.  Again, as a reader, Harry is slipping in my estimation. :D

Pippin:
He isn't refusing moral responsibility, he's learning that it's something people have to grow into. Which is why he doesn't force it on young Albus. If Albus thinks he has to be in the "good" house to  be good, well, that's why we don't put eleven year old kids in charge of things. :)

Pippin