Rowling does such a great job on surprising the audiences with her character changes and unpredictable surprises. It seems that characters are changing in every book. One character that particularly sticks out to me is Neville Longbottom. Throughout the first few books, Neville is just a shy, plump, clumsy no body. Everyone just thought of him as a joke in the wizarding world. He never stuck up for himself especially around Draco Malfoy. In the first book, Neville was awarded points to the Gryffindor house for sticking up for his friends which was the winning points to win the house cup. This began him feeling a little more confidence in himself. Later, in the Order of Phoenix, we come to find his parents were a part of the Order of Phoenix and were aurors. His parents were tortured by Death Eaters and he was sent to grow up and live with his grandmother. Neville was one of two people that put in the prophecy. In between book four and five, I believe this is really showing Neville's coming of age. He starts to grow up and become a man. Neville begins to really grow in the Herbology class in book four. In book five, Neville joins Dumbledore’s army to defeat Lord V and the death eaters. I would have never guessed he would have done this in the past few books because of his lack of smarts and self-confidence. Unlike Harry, Hermione and Ron, Neville was a surprised character to everyone with how brave he had become from the beginning. Although it took him a while to grow up and be strong, he really shows his strength at the end when it came to fighting Lord V and turning down his offer to join the dark side. Neville is just one of those characters that everyone wants the best for and loves.
Neville is truly depicted as an underdog character within the series. I feel that Rowling could have gone two ways with him. She could of wrote him as the epic failure that seems to wind up in the wrong place at the wrong time or as a true coming of age character that plays a vital role in the conclusion of the story. I find it interesting that in a sense she did both. Since, like you said, he is part of the prophecy, he ends up being on the better half the prediction yet just as easily could of been in Harry's shoes. This said Neville had the luck to not be deemed the equal yet grew up awkward and sucky at magic.Rowling writes him as the underdog and then shape him into an asset to the team
ReplyDeleteI believe that Neville is a character who is honestly coming around to seeing his own strengths later in his years at Hogwarts. I agree with you on how he first came up in the firstbook when he stood up to your friends but to me he wazs so good at herbology because it really didnt require him to usetoo much magic in front of people, feeling pressured. I feel as if he is a good wizard just does no have any confidence in himself. The part where Neville is starting to shape into someone who sticks up for themself is when he join the D.A. and they fight Voldemort in the Ministry. From then on he is just blossoming as a young adult. He is no longer afraid of what others will say because you can tell that he is confident that he can do magic. Before he believed in himself as much as Snape did, which we all know is bare to none! His OWLS are when I was beyond amazed how well he did, especially since he never did well in class, except Herbology. I am glad that Rowling is shaping him into the person he is becoming.
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