James Potter, any redeeming qualities?

Question

I've just been rereading Harry Potter over the summer and despite all of the assertions that James Potter was a wonderful person and all of the sycophants that now worship him after his passing, is he ever really shown doing anything even remotely great during the course of the series?

Despite the fact that James was beloved in life and death, and the fact that JKR also seems to love his character, I don't think that he seems to have a single redeeming quality that would have made Lily love him.

The two things that one could possibly point to as parts that show a somewhat better side of him are when he dies to give Lily time to escape and when he defends her when Snape calls her a Mudblood, neither of those truly convince me that he was a good person though. He already knew that he was going to die and that was the only reason that he told Lily to run and there are so many other terrible things that he did during the Snape's worst memory chapter. He just seems like an arrogant bully who only helps those that he deems worthy. I partially blame JKR for not developing his character and just expecting the readers to accept his goodness without any proof, but is there anything that I'm missing here.

Even that prologue that she brought out recently shows him joking around and ridiculing Muggle policemen while he is being chased by Death Eaters and there are potential lives at stake.

Answer 1

Are you seriously looking this deeply into a character in some books?

Answer 2

Well, he saved Snape from (werewolf)Remus when Sirius told Snape that Remus was at the Whomping Willow.

Plus, it seemed like he was an immensely loyal friend.

Answer 3

I never thought of James as a bully, just a prankster. Yea he treated Snape badly, but I never thought he did it to seriously hurt him. After all, he saved him from Lupin and Sirius. He just liked to mess around, but he was very loyal and smart. As he grew, he probably changed but I have no doubt he was a good person, because everyone says Harry was so much like his dad, and Harry never actually tried to do anything wrong. I just think he was a young boy having fun who grew up to be a good man, just like Harry.

edit: And I agree with he person above me, we only got to see James when he was doing something bad to Snape, but what about everythig else? I really doubt Jame was like that to everybody.

Answer 4

If JKR says he was a good guy, I trust her. She knows her characters better than we do. Dumbledore thought Jame's was a good person too. Dumbledore is never wrong about people (well, except Grindelwald, I suppose).

"He already knew that he was going to die and that was the only reason that he told Lily to run".

Well that's a stupid attitude to have. He didn't tell her to run because he "knew he was going to die". Yes, he knew he would die. But he wanted to give his wife and son the opportunity to live, even though he knew it wouldn't happen. He was trying to buy time. He did it because he cared about Lily! Who cares if he knew if he was going to die or not? That makes it all the more noble that he was willing to do it! Saying Jame's sacrifice was dumb (which is basically what you are saying) is like saying Sidney Carton's sacrifice in A Tale of Two Cities is dumb. Both sacrificed their lives in behalf of those they loved. That is definitely a redeeming quality.

He was loyal to his friends-- and wife-- which is also a redeeming quality, in my mind. We see that when he decided to become an Animagi to help Lupin out. He saved Snape from the Whomping Willow too.

James' character was never developed enough to come to the conclusion that he was a bad person. He was, in essence, a "jock". Most jocks are a******s, at least in High School. Most of them grow out of it, though. Why couldn't the same apply to James? James grew out of it when he came back for his 7th year-- and we only saw memories of him up to 6th year. If we had seen memories of the 7th year, perhaps he'd appear "better" to you.

It's important to remember that a large portion of what we saw of Jame's came from *Snape*. Snape HATED him; he's biased. His view is going to be bitter and make James out to be the bad guy in all circumstances. It's like asking Osama Bin Laden what Americans are like-- he has his opinion, but he's prejudiced. His vision of Americans is, in my mind, skewed. You can't get an unbiased view of a person from a prejudiced person. If we saw James through Sirius', Dumbledore's, or Lupin's eyes, James wouldn't look as jerky. He'd look like the "Good guy" most of the time. The best person to probably ask about James would be Lupin-- Snape and Sirius are both too far on one end or the other of the spectrum. Lupin seems more openminded and fair.

Yeah, James was a jerk to Snape. Yeah, it was wrong for him to have done some of the things he did. Yeah, he was arrogant. He made mistakes. But he had redeeming qualities, and he grew out of the superciliousness eventually. Everyone has redeeming qualities.

Answer 5

I totally understand what you mean. We don't fully know the James character. I thought exactly what you did while reading the book; he seemed kind of like a jerk. I do think though, that it is something people grow out of. There is a lot we don't know about his character. Snape showed us the bad, arrogant side of James, but that doesn't mean that their wasn't a kinder side to him. This character is so vague to us because he is dead, so we were not able to see how he grew up. We get this arrogant vibe from James because that's the way he was to Snape. But we don't know what he was like to other people, or after he grew out of that.