Ron the prefect

[sistermagpie]

Update on the Christopher Walken connection: I think I mentioned my parents knew him somehow when he was a kid? 'Kay, the real deal is that my mother's sister (my aunt) went to dancing school with him as a kid, back when his family ran a bakery in Queens. Apparently his brothers are still in the bakery business. So there ya go. That's how my mother knew him. She used to go to his dance recitals.

Hee.

Been re-reading OotP and really liking Ron there. I've always liked Ron as a character but almost never identify with him in any way. In this book I realized in a small way I did.

Up to chapter 10 in the re-read and the whole Ron-as-prefect thing really gets me and here's why. I have this pattern in life--I know it's a pattern, I accept it and it doesn't really bother me. I never fight for control of something. Like...if I'm involved with something and somebody else comes in and wants it to be all about them or their thing, just anything that makes me feel like it doesn't really "belong" to me, I drop it. I'm not very passive-aggressive but I do have a huge supply of passive resistance. What I get out of it, I guess, is that I've given the thing up myself rather than letting the other person take it from me. It's not that I can't *share.* Sharing is fine--but if somebody else wants it for themselves I usually give it to them and walk away.

I don't think I'd have had the same reactions to the prefecture that Ron does in OotP, but I can so relate to the way he feels about it. First he unexpectedly gets this badge. Despite the fact that I tend to think Dean would make a better prefect, Ron wins the thing completely honestly as far as he knows. (This is probably why it infuriates me when Dumbledore sides with everyone else and says yes, it really should have been Harry's.) So here's he's got this badge that he obviously does feel proud about, as evidenced by his constantly picking it up and moving it and trying to see it on his robe in the window reflection. The boy was given an unexpected compliment and perhaps more importantly, a sign that someone sees something in him and trusts him with responsibility.

And immediately, everybody conspires to suck the joy out of it. The twins, I think, would be fine by themselves. Yes, they're irreverent about it but I don't think they're trying to tear him down at all. But then Hermione runs in and mistakenly thinks Harry's prefect because he's holding the badge: "I knew it," she says. Fine. But then, when Harry says, "Not me. Ron's the prefect," with, I think, an awkwardness that shows he, too, thinks this is embarrassing for all involved, Hermione makes things worse: "Are you sure?" WTF? How about just transferring your joy to Ron there and saying, "I knew it would be one of you!" Instead there's a long moment where she can't hide her feeling that Ron doesn't deserve it as much as Harry does. She's disappointed. There's been a mistake.

So now along with the twins neutral, regular teasing about Ron's interest in the badge, he's got to feel guilty about taking Harry's spot and know that everybody is thinking Harry should have it. And what does everyone do at dinner but prove him right by spending the whole night making it up to Harry for not being prefect? Either they're telling stories about how they couldn't have been prefect either because they were too cool rambunctious or, in Remus' case, explaining how they didn't really get/take the job seriously. Well, that's great to cheer Harry up and it works but what about Ron who has yet to get one genuine validation that he deserved the thing himself? Nobody can come up with one. Molly is supportive no matter what, which is great, but not one person can honestly say he'll do a good job. Harry snorts with laughter at the twins' joke, "Who would ever appoint Ron prefect?" and finally is only able to say, "I cause too much trouble," which again doesn't explain why Ron should be prefect but instead explains why Harry, who is superior, can't be prefect. Even Kingsley, I think, wonders aloud why Dumbledore didn't make him prefect, like he's the obvious first choice. If Harry had gotten prefect, I suspect everybody would just be congratulating him and not bothering too much about Ron because hey, it's not like he'd have any reason to expect it himself. Ron would probably feel the same way, in fact. Just imagine him sitting under a banner congratulating him for being made prefect while the main topic of conversation is why was Harry not made prefect? Just imagine my using the word "prefect" so many times in one paragraph. Whew!

So Ron gets on the train knowing that pretty much nobody considers him to really deserve his badge, and this is also the chapter where Hermione starts, imo, appointing herself head prefect. Hermione is not at all happy at the prefect situation: she doesn't approve of Pansy Parkinson (thick as a concussed troll) or Draco. She has nothing bad to say about the others, but nothing good either. When Ron jokes about giving Goyle lines to write she scolds him about abusing his power and not stooping to Malfoy's level but really...lighten up. Ron didn't abuse his power, he just made a joke about giving Goyle lines. Draco does the same thing moments later, gleefully telling Harry he could punish him without actually doing it. Obviously it's in character for Hermione to be controlling like this but given that Ron already feels like he's not really a prefect I think it's the beginning of his just giving up the title, if Hermione's going to criticize every thing he does as one. (Not that she's being really mean to him here or anything--I just think it eventually adds up.)

Re-reading chapter ten I was really struck by Hermione's attitude about the job, in fact. She spends a lot of time focusing on keeping other prefects in line. When Hermione first comes into Harry's compartment she's "disgruntled" and announces there are "two prefects from each house. One boy and one girl." Worse, she has to share the job with stupid people like Pansy and Draco. She really seems angry about it. This could be because they insulted her at the meeting, but those things don't usually bother her this way, and besides I think Ron would be angry too and have something to say about it. I think the whole concept angers her.

The kids are briefly separated getting off the train. Harry notices Draco and his friends pushing "timid-looking" second years to get a coach to themselves, then Hermione comes through the crowd, panting and complaining about Malfoy being "beastly" to some first years, using his badge to bully worse than ever and threatening to report him. Did she intervene, I wonder, and is that why she's panting? (Is that why the Slytherins are shoving at this moment? Are they angry?) Whatever happened, while I'm sure Draco was obnoxious as always I still can't separate this from Hermione's being determined to patrol the prefect squad as much if not more than the other students. Because just as Malfoy has no doubt made his prefect's position part of his own obnoxious personality, so has Hermione's given her license to be more bossy and judgmental than ever. The reason I bring it up here is, among other things, that I seem to recall Ron later calling the first years "midgets" and Hermione scolding him too. So I can sort of imagine a scene where Malfoy was being an obnoxious prefect, "Oy. You there! Where you supposed to be? Get back in line!" and laughing at the tizzy he puts the 11-year-old into, only to have Hermione march up and start scolding him and starting a fight. If one was a teacher in charge of prefects, I think one would consider Hermione to have an attitude problem possibly far more difficult to handle than Malfoy's. (I also can't help but think of the DA as being more to her liking, what with her having more authority and power and ability to punish and all...)

I'll have to re-read the book to be sure, but my memory is that Hermione pretty much takes possession of the whole prefect angle. So there's Ron, possibly crushing on her (please come to your senses, this is not a relationship that would be healthy for either of you), constantly having his own decisions on the job called into question or criticized by Supervisor Hermione, and unfortunately completely lacking the confidence to stand up for himself because after all, everyone knows he didn't deserve the badge to begin with. It's exactly like what he deals with on the Pitch--he didn't quite earn his position so can't really be confident.

Anyway, so I really feel for Ron in this instance. I don't think I'd have reacted the same way because, I really wouldn't *want* to be prefect and I think Hermione's orders would roll off me. I don't think I'd see it as the kind of honor Ron does, you know? But if I was in a situation where I really did respect an award or a position and when I needed reassurance that I got it honestly everyone made it clear I didn't, and there was somebody else grabbing control of it, I think I'd let go of it just like Ron does. I just remember feeling like later, when there's some scene in the Common Room where the twins are acting up and Ron says, "Hermione will take care of it," it's not that Ron's lost interest in being prefect or doesn't respect the position, it's that he no longer considers himself prefect.

I think that was one of the things that really struck me about Ron in this book...he's almost like Neville in the way he seems to have internalized all his problems and decided they are up to him to solve alone. After last year's fight with Harry, he seems to have opted out of any competition with him in favor of a more solitary development. This could be good for Ron or it could not be...I just realized I no longer trust that everyone's character development will follow logically from book to book so I can't say where he'll go next!

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I worry about Ron the same way--that's a lot of what I was thinking at the end of the post when I said I didn't trust the growth to be consistent. Because it really sort of a jump for a lot of characters here--suddenly Harry is angry, Ron is more passive, Ginny is Super. And yes, these things could be development from who they were at 11 sure--it's just that it seems so easy to draw a line at that month between GoF and OotP and see a jump and now we're just supposed to say, Now let's pretend this is what Ron has always been.