I don't think someone can truly be arrogant without knowing it, because arrogance implies belief-- a belief of oneself as superior.
I guess this is where we've gotta agree to disagree. I think you can believe in yourself as superior and never even realise you're doing it. I mean, with Harry you have a character that is emotionally deprived, but extraordinarily privileged on other levels - talented, famous, wealthy, doesn't have to obey the rules that everyone else does... So obviously there's a contrast in self image there - one side of him is thinking that he doesn't deserve anything (the effects of living with the Dursleys) that he's just normal ( the part in OotP for example, when Hermione and Ron are trying to persuade him to head the DA); but the other side is saying pretty much what he bellowed in OotP about how much better he is than his friends. It's extremely similiar to 'Conversations with Dead People' (you're a BtVS fan, yeah? You know what I'm trying to reference?) I really think you can't look at one side without the other, though. People who aren't Harry fans (or Buffy fans, for that matter) can't ignore or dismiss the genuinely good sides of their personalities - love for their friends, their 'heroism'; those sides aren't cancelled out by the times when they *are* selfish or self-pitying. Likewise, Harry/Buffy defenders can't deny their nastier sides by saying 'Look at all the good they've done!' because they *do* have faults, like everybody else; there are times when they are too self-obsessed or when they take out their feelings about other things onto self appointed 'baddies', and their good works don't magically erase this.
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timeasmymeasure
part two
Date: 2004-07-17 04:53 am (UTC)I guess this is where we've gotta agree to disagree.
I think you can believe in yourself as superior and never even realise you're doing it.
I mean, with Harry you have a character that is emotionally deprived, but extraordinarily privileged on other levels - talented, famous, wealthy, doesn't have to obey the rules that everyone else does...
So obviously there's a contrast in self image there - one side of him is thinking that he doesn't deserve anything (the effects of living with the Dursleys) that he's just normal ( the part in OotP for example, when Hermione and Ron are trying to persuade him to head the DA); but the other side is saying pretty much what he bellowed in OotP about how much better he is than his friends.
It's extremely similiar to 'Conversations with Dead People' (you're a BtVS fan, yeah? You know what I'm trying to reference?)
I really think you can't look at one side without the other, though. People who aren't Harry fans (or Buffy fans, for that matter) can't ignore or dismiss the genuinely good sides of their personalities - love for their friends, their 'heroism'; those sides aren't cancelled out by the times when they *are* selfish or self-pitying.
Likewise, Harry/Buffy defenders can't deny their nastier sides by saying 'Look at all the good they've done!' because they *do* have faults, like everybody else; there are times when they are too self-obsessed or when they take out their feelings about other things onto self appointed 'baddies', and their good works don't magically erase this.