Character Trajectories

For the DA Six... (we are still counting down, after all)


So WHICH DA Six?

The group that goes to the Ministry at the end of Order of the Phoenix, of course... but I'm not going to talk about that battle, except in passing. What I want to do is look at those six characters and their growth across seven books.

Harry

Harry, our fabulous MC, doesn't so much go through unusual growth as on an amazing journey. Harry is ALWAYS a mostly kind boy, with certain strengths and unusually high morals for a boy who grows up with such poor examples.

I love though, the shift from stuff happening TO Harry to Harry making stuff HAPPEN. It is why Order of the Phoenix will remain in my top spot as favorite of the books—this is where the shift happens—where Harry takes control of his destiny. I don't see it so much as character trajectory though, as maturing and accepting something that was always necessary.

He does the best expressions...

Ron

You know... Ron is funny, so you can miss it, but he's got a sort of nasty streak. He knows the words he's supposed to say—spouting his parents' beliefs about who should get to be a wizard, but he has accepted a lot of cultural prejudice and has made no effort to UNLEARN most of it. This is beautiful in a way—showing his beliefs about House Elves for instance, illustrates a great truth about prejudices—they are easy to hold in general terms, but when you meet a specific case (Dobby) they fall all to hell.

Over the course of the books, though, we learn a lot of Ron's snark and meanness is insecurity—sixth son—last failure by parents trying again and again for a daughter.

I think though, the set-up... Ron's quiet anger, hidden by humor... the under the surface burbling, fed beautifully into Deathly Hallows and the demons that were able to briefly master him. And mastering them was such a central point of action in the book. Brilliantly played... readers LOVE Ron—he is so real (the central humor figure for much of the series), but the failure... for a time... was played from the beginning. I happen to think Ron's trajectory is a beautiful bit of writing.

Hermione

Hermione's journey and trajectory is very different. She starts out as a girl who sees the world in black and white, but right from the first book she sees that sometimes breaking the rules can have positive results (making two close friends when formerly she had none).

And this new attitude, through the books, has times that make us CHEER (forming the DA) and times that make us think HOLY CRAP, HERMIONE CROSSED A LINE! (Cursing McLaggen). This, too, I think is brilliant. I think there are some lessons we learn... and overlearn and cross lines on... that we have to learn moderation with.

It is one of my favorite things about Rowling... that the world has lessons that work, and lessons that work too well so you need to reassess... no black and white for her (or me)

Neville

Oh, man. Is there any more clear case of FINDING PURPOSE and finally becoming who he was meant to? Clumsy, forgetful, accident prone Neville... taking on the inner school battle and... well this movie will give his GRAND show, so I won't spoil... but Neville goes through a HUGE transformation—ALSO understandable. When Neville is a BABY, his parents are tortured into insanity. He grows up with a gran who has a case of hero worship over her son and keeps pointing out how her grandson doesn't measure up. I'd lack confidence, too.

Luna

We meet Luna late, in the course of the books—not until Order of the Phoenix. I loved her from the start. She has a quiet, non-traditional wisdom... and a serenity. Yet she is so obviously ALSO a case for pity—she is moving through the world very alone—she tells Harry more than once, 'It's like having friends'-- like she doesn't know what ACTUALLY having friends is like. MAN, I wanted Harry and Luna to end up together after OoP. I liked what she brought out in him. (and I had other plans for Ginny)

I ALSO really liked that she seemed to be the uninjurred one, for so long, in the Ministry battle—she was pulling her own.

Ginny

Ginny starts out as timid crush girl. Our first heavy exposure, she is in love with Harry and ends up possessed by HWMNBN (not to be confused with HWMNBMOTI). And then she is quietly sort of present... but barely... she goes to a ball with Neville. She is present in Weasley family situations. But until Order of the Phoenix when we learn she is quite popular, we don't see her a lot.

And then in the DA, we get a taste of just how powerful she is... And she gets Harry's Seeker spot when Umbridge pulls him off...

You know... I had Ginny pegged as eventual Minister of Magic. I think my problem with the Harry/Ginny romance is I like her too well. I wanted her to have her OWN story, not be a sidebar in Harry's... not that wife is sidebar... exactly... I mean I don't think Luna would have been a sidebar. But Harry and Ginny have too much in common and Ginny doesn't trump him by a lot anywhere. He is 'more'. Luna is on a different enough plane that there aren't the comparisons... or so I saw it...

Anyway... I wished Ginny had had a bigger role in DH, if she was going to be Harry's long term partner and all... I like her magical trajectory, and I like how she coped with 'Harry not being ready yet' but I think her line is the one I like least.


6 more days, Potter Peeps!