Blog Post # 2: Character Development

Blog prompt # 2: Harry and Ron

Understanding Harry’s development is essential to understanding the themes of the Harry Potter series. The Series’ central focus is on his coming of age and development of a very profound empathetic nature. We can see this development played out most distinctively through Harry’s development of friendship with Ron. Ron’s background of coming from a very large wizarding family is the exact contrast of Harry. For Harry, Ron is what Harry comes to envy once he learns all about the wizarding world (a great deal of which is from Ron directly). Harry grew up without parents, and the only thing that is close to a sibling in Dudley can hardly take the place of a proper brother. When Harry and Ron first meet, their relationship is completely innocent. At a time in life for Harry when the entire wizarding world is thrust upon him and his fame is introduced to him, Ron gives Harry a sense of normality, and we see their bond begin to grow. We see it grow to the point of seriously harmful conflict in the Goblet of Fire when Ron and Harry are at odds because Harry’s name came out of the cup. Their ability to eventually forgive, forget, and laugh the situation off shows us a great deal about both their comings of age.

From the first time Harry steps in front of the mirror of Erised we see his empathetic nature come to fruition. His unconditional support of “the right thing to do” is quite admirable. We see this in times such as in the Goblet of Fire when Harry saves Fleur’s sister from the lake as well as Ron. He later curses himself realizing that he did not have to do it because her life was not really in danger, but this is also a reflection of his coming of age, and realizing that he does hold these values, and they can sometimes get him into trouble. One of the explicit examples of Harry’s empathy to me is his relationship with Hagrid. Even though it is obvious that Hagrid is not always the brightest of characters or might do things a little unorthodox, Harry will always support him, and offer him any kind of positive feeling because of Hagrid’s impact on his own life.

There is a very noticeable change in attitude when the order of the phoenix is introduced to Harry and Ron. We begin to see the development of ties to the past and previous generation. This gets the characters involved with the adults of the series in pursuing the same goal. There is an interesting moment between Harry, Ron, and Hermione when Harry first arrives at number 12 Grimmauld Place where Harry discovers that information has been being withheld from him. This is an example of Ron’s coming of age as the begin to understand the importance of knowing who to trust, and realizing that the world is not all fun and games, especially with the return of Voldemort.

Through the development of certain characters, we see the themes of the novel played out, especially with Harry, and his development of a major friendship with Ron. Having read the series in its entirety it is safe to say that we will certainly see the strength of the bond between Harry and Ron tested before the end, and at that time, the empathetic nature of Harry as he has come of age, and all events of his past will be reflected on his decisions at that time.