mary_j_59

Yes! I did read that article, and agree wholeheartedly, but thanks for linking to it again. As to your comment about the Unforgivable Curses and the "good guys", I agree with you. I guess I didn't make this clear enough in my original post - but my chief problem with them, as the book stands, isn't so much that Harry and Hermione performed them, as that they performed them, felt no consequences, and were never sorry for performing them. That disgusted me. Yes, it's very possible for kids under stress to do wrong (and torture is a very great wrong, as is brainwashing). But to do these evil things, to still be depicted as pure of soul, and never to think about these acts again, or to feel anything except pride at achieving them - UGH! That is really disgusting, and made me lose all sympathy for Harry completely. It is not a good thing if you lose all sympathy for the protagonist in a novel. I'd really like to know what Rowling was thinking when she wrote this scene, and how she thought her readers would take it. I would think any normal, ethical adult reader - and any older kid with even a modicum of empathy - would be disgusted with Harry and Hermione.

And this is what I mean when I say that Harry did not grow up. He never had to be sorry for misjudging Snape or failing to help him when he had the chance; he never had to be sorry for the harm he had done anyone; he never reevaluated (or even simply evaluated) his beliefs and actions - and thinking about your beliefs, and your place in the world, is a core part of adolescence, isn't it?

Thanks for reading, and for your comment. )