Character analysis
The characters I have chosen for my character analysis are Vernon and Petunia Dursley. I know you only need to pick one character, but I didn’t feel right just picking one or the other. For that simple fact that they feed off each other’s fixed mindset’s. Which is one of the things I will talk about in my essay. However, before we get to that I will tell you a little about the characters individually. I will start by talking about the characteristics of each then to tie it all together I will talk about both together. I will do this while providing examples from not just Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone By: J.K. Roweling but Carol Dweck’s Mindset the New Psychology of Success.
We will start off with Vernon, the first …show more content…
This is a fixed mindset because he blames everyone around him for his problems. Harry is usually the first to be blamed when something goes wrong. They don’t even access the situation, because they know his past and that he could be a wizard, when strange things happen its always Harry. Such as when they are on their way to Dudley’s birthday and they didn’t want Harry to go but the baby sitter had to cancel. “I’m warning you,” he said putting his large purple face right up close to Harry’s. I’m warning you now, boy – any funny business, anything at all- and you’ll be locked in that cupboard until Christmas.” (Rowling Pg. 24) The definition of a fixed mindset is “Believing that your qualities are carved in stone is a fixed mindset.” (Dweck, Pg. 6). I also think that he has a fixed mindset when it comes to their son, they both do really. In their eyes Dudley is perfect and can do no wrong. In thinking like this not only do they have a fixed mindset, but they are causing Dudley to have one as well. “Parsing children’s intelligence harms their motivation and it harms their performance.” Dweck pg. 175. I think that they are …show more content…
She bullies Harry because she still has a lot of unsettled jealousy for her sister. When her and Vernon decide not to tell Harry he is a wizard, they are in many ways not facing a challenge head on. This in many ways is a fixed mindset because instead of facing the problem head on she is choosing to blame Harry and take the, in her mind easy way out which is treating him like dirt his whole life. When Hagrid tells Harry, he is a wizard the true source of her anger appeared she doesn’t really face anything she mostly just rants and calls her sister a freak. “How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got her letter just like that and disappeared off to that- that school- and came back every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw she her for what she was- a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lilly this and Lilly that, they were proud to of having a witch in the family!” (Rowling Pg. 52) In her eyes she has the perfect family, but really, she doesn’t. She and Vernon spoil Dudley, they are teaching him that he can do no wrong by awarding and sometimes even parsing his bad behavior. “Thirty-six,” he said, looking up at his mother and father. “That’s two less than last year.” (Rowling Pg. 21) is this scene Dudley has just counted his presents, he has less than last