Harry Potter is,
at its core, a coming of age narrative. The overarching plot of the series is
concerned primarily with the ways in which our protagonists become, and grow into their own skins
and identities both as individuals and as groups. This, of course, parallels
Rowling’s target readership, with Harry and his friends aging at essentially
the same rate as her readers, experiencing the same sorts of things the
characters are – learning about themselves and about what it means to grow up.
One way we see this ‘becoming’ process is with Harry in regards to how he grows
in empathy and understanding of other people throughout the course of the
novels. Harry’s perception of people is often very visceral and reactionary and
not rooted in anything outside of his personal interactions with a given
person. The most obvious example would be Snape, whom Harry thoroughly
dislikes. Though he might have good reason to detest Snape, given his harsh track
record, it’s not until Harry sees into the past in Snape’s pensieve that Harry
comes to terms with the limitations of his perception – before this, he never
takes the time to consider why Snape
is the way he is. This is an essential step in Harry’s development as a
character; part of growing up, Rowling might be suggesting, is learning the
ability to jump over the ‘wall’ of Self, and inhabit the other’s world, if just
for a moment. If childhood is essentially about self-discovery (a selfishness
of sorts), then adulthood is about leaning to transcend that impulse to only
think of oneself and learn empathy for the other. This step towards empathy is
one towards becoming – actualization, or whatever you want to call it.
I think that this is a really interesting point of view – it makes a lot of sense. I think then that this could also be argued from the opposite spectrum. The “evil” characters of the book, such as Voldemort or Umbridge, are incapable of putting themselves in others’ shoes – Is this why they’re evil? It could be contended that this is the very reason why characters (or people outside of the books) are considered evil. Characters/people are considered evil because their thoughts and actions affect others negatively, but would they even be thinking/performing negative actions if they were capable of thinking from others’ points of view?
ReplyDeleteMm, I just wrote a post on empathy and totally forgot to put Snape in there. I totally agree with what you are saying about Harry in regards to people, and especially Snape. Harry really doesn't know how to categorize people other than with how he knows them through interactions. I think it's interesting how little his view into Snape's pensive really changes the way Harry views him though. I think that Harry still isn't really willing to change the way he views Snape, even though he should have full blown empathy for Snape. It's interesting how much people's dirty laundry can affect the way we view them, even if we know that they really are good people at heart.
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