/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.20395174]

How come in fiction, people are often portrayed as being more submissive, docile, weak, and easygoing as children than how they end up as adults? This seems to transcend cultures since I first noticed this in anime, but Harry Potter's a good example despite being a British story. Harry is confident and even somewhat aggressive as a 16/17 year old, but he's purehearted and gentle at 11-12. I don't really get it.

[Anonymous No.20395177]

>>20395174
I meant to say "assertive and even somewhat aggressive" rather than "confident"

[Anonymous No.20395387]

>>20395174
In his particular case his mind meld or whatever with wizard-Hitler made him more aggressive at around 14-15, so he grew a spine in those years. But overall yeah, you have interesting point.

[Anonymous No.20395411]

>>20395174
Because 12 year olds are all pussy ass bitches and I could take most of them in a fight

[Anonymous No.20395419]

>>20395387
>>20395174
Living under the constant fear of being killed by Wizard Hitler and its followers almost every year after you join a new magical community is really fucking stressful.

Harry in the books literally had a whole government making a smear campaign aimed at him after he had the courage to warn the whole wizarding world that Voldemort was back. He went through actual torture, had his mind constantly attacked during a whole year and felt isolated because Dumbledore was going out of his way as to not tell Harry anything about their operations against Voldemort because he had a direct link to Voldemort's mind.

Book 5 was basically "Babby's first spy/political thriller" since it dealt with authoritive figures being ineffective against an enemy that worked in the shadows and those same authorities either blamed the whistleblowers or were just as shadowy as the enemies.

[Anonymous No.20395464]

>>20395174
Characters need to evolve, that's it

[Anonymous No.20395467]

>>20395411
"Most of them"

[Anonymous No.20395972]

>>20395411
>>20395467