It is a known fact that the Harry Potter series is a coming
of age series. It displays that development in all characters as they age and
grow up. One particular individual is Neville Longbottom. In the first book,
Neville is portrayed as the forgetting student who is clumsy and not very good
at magic. But through the series, it is discovered that Neville has gone
through the same trauma Harry has in the sense that his parents were also
murdered by Voldemort. Though they are not physically murdered, their soul is
gone and they are at a mental hospital, forever forgetting who they and their
son are. However as the books progress, it seems that little forgetful Neville
soon begins to find himself, and though he hides from the trauma in his life,
he is not ashamed by it, he simply chooses not to tell people. Everyone marvels
at Harry because he is the boy who lived, while his parents died, but Neville
may not have been attacked my Voldemort, he was deeply affected by his actions,
which no one acknowledges. This shows that Neville has great strength and
bravery, even though he may not show it as openly as the others in Griffindor
at first. He begins to show his strength and bravery when he joins Dumbeldore’s
Army with Harry, Ron, Hermione and many others; he is determined to fight
against Voldemort and end him once and for all because of the distress he has
put on his families lives. It seems as if Neville is just beginning to evolve
and there are many more ways he can blossom into a more prominent character and
develop into the man who his parents and everyone else would be truly proud of.
-Megan Sparks
-Megan Sparks
I could not agree more that Neville has greatly changed in personality and has developed leadership qualities that have not previously been seen. I love the point you make that Neville deserves more credit for dealing with his parents “death.” In my opinion he deserves more credit than Harry for his ability to deal with the “death” of his parents. He never has the opportunity to destroy Dumbledore’s office when he is angry or we never see him lash out at his friends because he is angry about his not being around parents. Some feel Harry is under a lot of pressure because he is “the boy who lived” but no one can create the pressure or expectations for success like Neville’s “Gran.” It amazes me that no one until McGonagall in Half-Blood Prince acknowledges out-loud that “Gran” is incredible difficult or impossible to please because Neville is not Frank. I agree that Rowling does a masterful job of creating a character in Neville that is “just beginning to evolve” and she does a great job making him “blossom into a more prominent character and develop into the man who his parents and everyone else would be truly proud of.”
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