I read somewhere (maybe on this site?) that Harry's method of dealing with emotional abuse was to blame the abuser, tather than internalizing the criticism. That put into words what I'd always thought - growing up so extravagantly despised would be permanently damaging, so by blaming the Dursleys rather than himself, he protected himself. He was, as you say, exceptionally resilient for such an unloved child. It's an uncommon, but not unheard of reaction and can help the child considerably. The drawback being that whenever something went wrong for him, he'd continue the habit of blaming those around him, rather than looking internally. I always thought this was rather clever of JKR and tied in with his later behaviour, especially in OotP when he was culpable for Sirius' death yet didn't dwell on that, because he couldn't deal with it. Yet he could feel sorry for himself over Cedric, because it wasn't his fault at all.
By the last two books, it was sadly obvious that we weren't seeing how his defence mechanism from childhood was causing him problems as he approached adulthood. Instead we were seeing JKR's characterisation fall apart. She didn't want us to think that he was making mistakes and being unpleasant because it was the only way he could cope due to childhood trauma - she genuinely wanted us to admire his behaviour! So when he almost killed Draco, there was no hint of shame or guilt and he came across as hideous. Serves me right for reading too much into her work.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-11-16 11:50 am (UTC)By the last two books, it was sadly obvious that we weren't seeing how his defence mechanism from childhood was causing him problems as he approached adulthood. Instead we were seeing JKR's characterisation fall apart. She didn't want us to think that he was making mistakes and being unpleasant because it was the only way he could cope due to childhood trauma - she genuinely wanted us to admire his behaviour! So when he almost killed Draco, there was no hint of shame or guilt and he came across as hideous. Serves me right for reading too much into her work.
That said, I still like *this* book!