I just figured out what bothers me most about the latest Harry Potter book. It is the way that all of the adults keep secrets from the children. My philosophy is that if a child is old enough to ask the question, then they’re old enough to hear the answers. This is particularly important if the child has been traumatized in any way. If you withold vital information, then the child will not trust you and come to you for help when they need it. In the very first book Harry asks why Voldemort wanted to kill him. Dumbledore refuses to answer the question. Harry should have been told about the prophecy right then and there. Dumbledore claims Harry was “too young”. Any child who has been visciously attacked and nearly killed NEEDS to know everything about causes of the attack in order to recover. In addition Dumbledore tells Harry that his father saved Snape’s life, but fails to tell him the full story even though it is relevant. What should have happened was that Dumbledore sat down with Harry for an entire evening and answered every question Harry had.
My approach when my kids ask difficult questions (Like “where do babies come from?”) is to give a general, but truthful answer. If they then ask for more information I fill in details. That way the child gets exactly as much information as they are ready for. Dumbledore should have answered Harry’s “Why” with basic information about the prophecy and elaborated as Harry asked further questions. At least that is what Dumbledore should do if his first concern was for Harry. I don’t believe that to be true. I believe that Dumbledore’s first loyalty is to humankind at large and that his intention is to bring the permanent downfall of Voldemort. This larger goal causes Dumbledore to hide things from Harry and to use Harry as a tool. The sad thing is that Dumbledore could as easily achieve his larger goal by telling Harry things and then Harry would be a willing tool. I don’t like Dumbledore as much as I used to.
yep.
That’s exactly why I didn’t like Little Mermaid 2… That big of a secret and she’s in danger but doesn’t know it, then she can’t protect herself and worst of all- parents look like secret keepers/Liars that she can’t trust with her thoughts and feelings and the bad guy becomes her friend because the bad guy WILL tell her everything.
I have to say that from a Harry Potter Book point of view, it’s our fault that Harry doesn’t get all his info right in the first book… well, really J.K. Rowlings fault, she wants to string us along and only give US/Harry as much info as is necessary for that particular book, without giving anything away from the next book…and the best excuse for that is for a caring adult to underestimate the child’s strength, courage… I mean, he’s in Gryffindor for a reason! oh, you know. 🙂
Somethings I’ve learned from T.V. and movies and some books is that
Adults ALWAYS UNDERESTIMATE KIDS and Adults NEVER listen to kids (even if they get their info from a nuclear expert or weather expert etc.) and
Kids always OVERESTIMATE adults (kids assume they are getting all the truth or facts, and that the adult always has the kid’s best interest in mind.) And adults are ALWAYS suprised when the kids figure things out on their own and “save the world” on their own.
Classic.
That’s not really a spoiler. The whole Harry Potter series has been that way. All the adults patronize those kids horribly, especially Harry. It’s the one thing about the series that annoys me.
Word up. Or something.
Thing is…he has realized this. He knows he should have, and thus will *hopefully* not make the same mistake again.
Not to say he did the right thing, but at least he’s admitted that he should have done something else.
I like the idea of the most powerful character in the books having a character flaw, myself. It makes him more real.
I actually tend to blame the author more than the character in this case. Maybe that’s unfair of me. But I feel like Rowling wants to write her books about the children doing dramatic things, and she thinks (wrongly or rightly) that if the adults are open and honest with the kids, then the kids will not have the opportunity to take control of the story. I think this happens a lot in children’s books: authors are afraid to make strong adult characters because they’ll draw attention away from the kids. So the author winds up going to a lot of trouble to keep the adults out of the story, contriving all sorts of coincidences and schemes to make sure the kids remain the star. The lack of communication (both ways) which did so much harm in book 5 was one of these contrivances. It’s not an unbelievable one. It’s not unbelievable even if you accept Dumbledore’s explanation that he wanted to protect Harry. Dumbledore is, ultimately, not as good a parent-figure as he would like to be. He doesn’t understand what it’s like to be Harry, or how much harm he was doing in his efforts to “protect” him from the truth.
I certainly agree with you: I don’t like the way the adults hide stuff from the kids. Some things made sense, like not telling them what was going on with Hagrid. That’s information that they may want, but do not need, and the more people who knew, the more likely something important would leak to the enemy. (And I don’t mean intentional leaks: people, adults and children, talk to each other and can be overheard.)
But they keep a lot of secrets that they don’t need to keep, and that wound up doing a lot of harm because the kids acted on partial or bad information.
I personally agree with you here… Dumbledore made the very common mistake of thinking Harry couldn’t deal with the truth if he knew it. Telling a child everything he wants to know is a very rare response to this type of thing, but really the right thing to do. Dumbledore kept my respect by admitting he was wrong at the end of Phoenix. Of course if Harry and his friends are “outside the loop” in the next book, I’ll be quite annoyed.
I always thought the kids were making a mistake in every book by not going to the teachers with the information the kids had collected, but you’re right, it goes both ways.
Yeah. Another problem I had with that book is that Harry acts like, to put it bluntly and somewhat crudely, a whiny bitch. He seems in serious need of corporal punishment, or is that just me?
As for the “babies” comments, that reminds me of a joke I heard, once:
A farmer and his workers are helping a cow to give birth and during the process, he glances over and sees his six year old son watching. “Uh, oh,” the farmer thinks, and goes on with the work.
Afterward, he cleans up and goes over to where his son is still standing and casually asks, “So, son, do you have any questions about what you just saw?”
“Just one, dad,” the boy says. “How fast was that calf going when it hit that cow?”
“You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!”
Except they can… Really!
I have to agree, in all honesty. I am enjoying the series and reading it with interest, and I’m willing to see where it goes.
I have that sort of thing happen with my own writing and games, and it *is* done on purpose. Sometimes people get entirely too subtle for the room.
Take care!