I have always been drawn to Luna Lovegood and I cannot help
but to see with her introduction in Order
of the Phoenix as an introduction made by Rowling to help to deal with the
themes of traumatic experiences and empathy. I believe that these two issues
play a large part and an extremely important part in Harrys fight against
Voldemort. Harry throughout Order of the
Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince
finds that above almost any other character he can relate to Luna and her
experiences. Both have had a parents killed (Luna still has her father, Quibbler editor) and can see the thestrals
as they enter the coaches to go to the castle. Harry is startled by seeing
these odd “horse” and Luna has empathy for his disconcertion and tries to
comfort him by saying “You’re not going mad or anything. I can see them too
(OoF 199).” This point in the book Harry has just recently met Luna and is not
comforted by these words but as the series progresses Luna her “embarrassing honesty”
grow on Harry. She simply tells it how it is, as the series progresses this is a
quality that Harry finds harder and harder to find in people and I believe that
he very much respects Luna for possessing. The theme of empathy is seen as a
two way street in the series, Harry reciprocates the empathy for Luna one
example being the following year on the train. He has grown immensely fonder of
Luna by this time and when Romilda Vane tries to tell Harry to sit with cooler
people Harry basically states that Neville and Luna are his friends and he
would sit with them any day of the week. Luna in a moment of embarrassing
honest states that she is not cool and people expect Harry to have “cooler”
friends, in turn Harry states that she is cool because she stood by him at the
ministry which ties in the second theme which is traumatic experiences. This is
the second traumatic experience that links these two together. Rowling uses
Luna to show that empathy is important because some people like Luna need the
Harrys’ and Ginny Weasleys’ of the world to stand up for them because they
either refuse to stand up for themselves (Luna) or can’t (Neville, the majority
of the time through the first 4 books). The theme of empathy is very important
in the overall picture of the series because in my opinion it ties into the
Dumbledorian idea that love conquers all. This means that it is a powerful
weapon against Voldemort because he has never empathized for anyone in his
life. I point to a scene in which Half-Blood
Prince in which Harry has empathy for Lord Voldemort because Voldemort’s
mother would not fight to stay alive to care for her son (262).
Luna is not a static character,
from her introduction in Order of the
Phoenix on the train to a year later on the train with Harry in Half-Blood Prince she has experienced
quite a bit and the reader feels much differently about her. Through the theme
of empathy we see what having friends and support can do for you
self-confidence and your magic (As is evident by Neville’s vast improvement
once joining the DA). Luna changes the way that the reader considers empathy
because with the progression of the series we see that Voldemort continues to
fail because he trusts no one, as no empathy, and therefore has no friends. We
find out that had he trusted Mr. Malfoy he would still have another horcrux.
This point made to show that empathy shows vulnerability which goes hand and
hand with trusting. If you never trust in the short term you may succeed but
over the long haul everyone needs a helping hand. From Luna introduction of the
series I would argue she has been the counter opposite of Voldemort in the area
of trust/empathy. She trusts everyone including her outlandish father which
sets her up to be ridiculed and her school things taken but as we see at the
end of Order of the Phoenix she has
trust that people will return her things. Also on the same line of thinking
because she empathizes with almost everyone people want to help her in her time
of need. This can be seen throughout in varies scenarios example not yet stated
being Ginny constantly hexing people because they call Luna “Loony.” Though
Luna is only introduced in book five she goes immensely in that time and helps
readers reconsider how to face traumatic events and the power of empathizing
with people.
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