| halfbreedlover | Date: Thursday, 2013-04-04, 05:02 | Message # 1 |
 Just Received their Letter
Group: Slytherins
Messages: 9
Status: Offline
| Discussion questions- some of these are based on CoS's questions, others are my own.
1.) Do you think Harry grew as a character throughout the series? If so, in which ways did he change?
2.) Does Harry have a "saving people thing"? If so, where would this come from? Does he grow out of it?
3.) Is Harry as good and noble as characters like Dobby see him?
4.) How do you think his treatment by the Dursleys as a child shaped him? Did it, in a sense, prepare him for his trials at Hogwarts or did it make him less prepared?
5.) How much did the horcrux inside him shape him?
6.) What sort of father and husband do you think Harry is?
7.) Why do you think he bonded so well with Ron and Hermione?
8.) How has his perception of his parents changed and how has that changed his outlook on life?
"Today's cure is tomorrow's headache." Karl Pilkington
|
| |
| |
| ArryGrotter | Date: Thursday, 2013-04-04, 05:50 | Message # 2 |
 Third Year
Group: Head of House
Messages: 192
Status: Offline
| Ooh, I'll go first! 
1.) Do you think Harry grew as a character throughout the series? If so, in which ways did he change?
I'm actually finding this difficult to answer. He changes in the sense that he went through a journey and learnt from it, but he still seems the same person who wants to figure out what's up with that weird stuff going on in Hogwarts 
2.) Does Harry have a "saving people thing"? If so, where would this come from? Does he grow out of it?
Definately. It's what makes him a good main character, enabling the plot to move forward  I have never gotten where this comes from though. He probably doesn't grow out of it, which probably makes him an effective Auror.
3.) Is Harry as good and noble as characters like Dobby see him?
This may be a bit controversial, but I'm going to say no. Things just happen to Harry, and he just responds in a way that can be viewed as noble. Well, that's my thoughts on it anyway...
4.) How do you think his treatment by the Dursleys as a child shaped him? Did it, in a sense, prepare him for his trials at Hogwarts or did it make him less prepared?
I feel that it made him more resilient and self-reliant. It's probably why he doesn't assume Ron and Hermione will follow him in the end of Philosopher's Stone and multiple other occasions in the series.
5.) How much did the horcrux inside him shape him?
Well, it created an awesome shape on his forehead
I just think it amplified his anger mainly. OotP!Harry, anyone? 
6.) What sort of father and husband do you think Harry is?
Hmm, I'd like to say a good one, but I don't really know...
7.) Why do you think he bonded so well with Ron and Hermione?
Because Jo needed them to?
Well, Ron represented the family that Harry never had, and Harry was the importance that Ron never had.
Hermione doesn't seem that straight forward. I guess Harry pitied her a bit at first, but soon realised that she was very loyal. I recall that sentence in PS how Harry was very happy about Hermione being her friend and that she lent him Quidditch Through the Ages.
8.) How has his perception of his parents changed and how has that changed his outlook on life?
Well, his rose tinted glasses surely must have come off.
I feel he still glorifies his father. He wasn't very nice at school, although I can't say much for when he was settled with Lily as we hardly saw any of that. Harry probably grasps onto this.
We don't get to see much or understand much of Harry's view of Lily after the Prince's Tale. I would expect he realised more how kind and accepting she was.
I'm sure some of you disagree on some of these points...
|
| |
| |
| xhanax315 | Date: Saturday, 2013-04-06, 04:59 | Message # 3 |
 First Year
Group: Students
Messages: 26
Status: Offline
| 2.) Does Harry have a "saving people thing"? If so, where would this come from? Does he grow out of it?
I think this is just part of Harry's nature. He can't go about not saving someone when he can.
3.) Is Harry as good and noble as characters like Dobby see him?
To an extent I can see him as being noble. He doesn't put himself out there like how the Daily Prophet made him out in OotP, he simply does what he has to. For instance at the end of DH when he realizes he has to face death in order to defeat Voldemort in the end in order to save the others.
5.) How much did the horcrux inside him shape him?
I'll have to ponder this one for a moment.
|
| |
| |
| MasterOfDeath | Date: Friday, 2013-04-19, 23:27 | Message # 4 |
|
Just Received their Letter
Group: Hufflepuffs
Messages: 1
Status: Offline
| 1. I actually don't think he changed all that much. He's essentially the same person from book 1 to book 7, he's just more knowledgeable and probably more trusting of other people by the end. Maybe a little wiser as well.
2. I think it comes from the guilt of his mother dying for him.
3. Probably not as much but Dobby isn't far off. Harry does use the unforgivable spells in DH making him a criminal who legally deserves a lifetime in prison.
4.There a quite a few explanations for this.
The first being Harry's nature itself. Harry is a Gryffindor/Slytherin personality for the most part. If he were a Hufflepuff like me, the damage probably would have been more drastic but he was tough and resilent and brave and strong. Like the sword of Gryffindor taking in that which makes it stronger, Harry absorbed his negative experiences and grew and became stronger from it because that's in his nature as a Gryffindor.
Secondly, we cannot compare Harry to an ordinary orphan because Harry is thrust into an extraordinary situation. The pychology could be geunine for all we know since we have no real world frame of reference for a young orphan who grew up with abusive family discovering he's part of a different world and being liberated and rescued from this horrible existance and giving a purpose, a sense of belonging and happiness and also a way to connect to his parets and get to know his parents and follow in their footsteps. Maybe if this happened to your average orphan and he didn't spend his entire childhood into young adulthood in an abusive household and was whisked away to this wonderful world at the age of 11, they woulden't turn out so bad either.
Thirdly, there's the possibility that the Dursleys only started to severely mistreat him at the age of six when he started showing traces of magic. In COS, Harry tells Ron the Dursleys hadn't given him pocket money for 6 years, implying they gave him pocket money before that which also implies that perhaps they were a little more cordial to him in his formative years and only started ignoring him and locking him in his cupboard when he showed signs of being magical. Remember, this is the reason the Dursleys mistreated him, they thought keeping him downtrodden would zap the magic out of him, they were ignorant (Petunia willingfully so).
And lastly, there's the case that Harry was damaged by his experience with the Dursleys and he really was. A normal boy woulden't mistrust adults and defy authority and break rules to the extent Harry did, a normal boy would not be so reckless and careless, nearly sucidial, a normal boy would not be so curious about adult matters, a normal boy would not understand the concept of fighting and dying for the greater good at age 11, a normal boy woulden't have such a saving people thing, a normal boy woulden't be so insular, only keeping to his two cloest friends so so many years and confiding in nobody else, a normal boy would have accepted Romilda Vane's invitation to go see with her and her friends, a normal boy woulden't pass out from the dementers, a normal boy would have a more definitive career idea (Harry all the way through dosen't even contemplate or care about what he wants to do, in OOTP, he just wants to quit school and live with Sirius) and a normal boy woulden't have the need to right wrongs as much as Harry did. It comes from being abused and experiecing horrors and trauma that makes Harry a hero willing to die for the greater good.
Ultimately, as Dumbledore said, Harry is so unique and special because despite enduring unearthly hardships and trauma, Harry is still able to love so strongly and that's what makes him the Boy Who Lived we all know and love.
5. It enabled him to speak parceltongue. This is a fascinating question because it concerns the big moral question of how much is it "the devil made me do it" and how much is it our own nature. Did the Riddle within make Harry more sneaky and crafty and manipulative? Did it make him more willing to break rules and defy authorities? I think the piece of soul fed into the darkness that was already in Harry as it is within us all.
6. A good husband and father. Abuse does that to people.
7. Because he never had friends and they accepted him and were outcasts as well and treated him like a person and not a celebrity.
8. He changes from being good because he wanted to emulate this ideal vision of his dad as this perfect guy to being more realistic and acknowledging people are flawed but that we are capable of good deeds anyway.
|
| |
| |
