Luna Lovegood: An Opinion
Luna Lovegood is a character from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. She is a student in her fourth year of school at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ginny Weasley is probably one of her only friends, because her eccentricity makes most people avoid her. Luna is in Ravenclaw House, which selects its students for their intelligence and wit. In this book, she meets Harry Potter and his friends, and helps Harry in quite a few ways. Luna
Lovegood can be concisely described as “odd”, is involved in a conflict (possibly with an alternate outcome), and is overall a very complex character.
The word that most people would choose to describe Luna Lovegood is “odd”. Nearly everything about her is unusual to a degree that would be termed “odd”. She has a unique and very original sense of style, wearing a bottle-cap necklace, noisy bird-shaped earrings, and carrying her wand behind her ear. In social situations, Luna does not conform to the so-called norms of Hogwarts students. Needless to say, she is labeled as a freak - in fact, her nickname is
“Loony” Lovegood - and is rather socially inept. She is still polite, but very blunt and straightforward, and laughs at inopportune moments. She is described by the author herself as “distinctly dotty.” So “odd” is a very appropriate description of Luna.
In all actuality, there are not very many conflicts worth describing between Luna Lovegood and any other characters. This is mostly because of Luna’s nature. She does not get into arguments, but her ideas do conflict with others’. For instance, Hermione objects several times to Luna’s odd beliefs in the existence of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, Blibbering Humdingers, and Heliopaths, but they just will not lower themselves to arguing something they believe so fiercely. So Luna and Hermione agree to disagree, in an unspoken way. This is pretty much Luna’s main and most personal conflict.
This conflict does not have an alternate solution that is true to both characters and the canonical events of the book. Luna Lovegood would never compromise her beliefs, it is just how stubborn she is. Hermione would likewise never admit that something so illogical and unproven existed - unless there were tangible proof of it, which there is not. Similarly, the reason Luna believes in them so strongly is because there is no proof. If there were suddenly genuine photographs and Hermione believed that they existed, Luna would cease to care. As one can see, there really is no alternate solution.
One might wonder exactly who Luna is. There are actually quite a few factors to her personality. One is her childhood. Luna witnessed the death of her own mother, and was raised by her father. Such a trauma would cause many people to become more introverted and less social, and, as may be in the case of Luna’s father, might push them into escapism through devotion to another area. This might explain the family’s characteristically unusual interest in what many would call tabloid material. One must agree, the character of Luna Lovegood is much more complex and layered than it first appears to be.
Luna Lovegood may be a minor character, but she is most definitely important. She is one of the five who accompanied and aided Harry on his rescue mission. Luna also has quite a few things in common with him: they can both see thestrals, both of their mothers died, and they both know what it is like to have people call them crazy. As observed, JK Rowling does not introduce any temporary characters. They have all had comebacks in later books (unless they die). So, readers should look for her in an increasingly important role in the future books.
An interesting evaluation of Luna’s personality is the Sorting Hat’s. Why did it place her in Ravenclaw? She does not seem particularly intelligent - perhaps it is because of her predominantly cognitive and introverted nature. Much of her life is based on ideas - i.e. creatures not proven to exist. And perhaps she merely has not been given the chance to show great intelligence. Luna is certainly a mysterious personality.
Indeed, Luna Lovegood is a very interesting character from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. She makes her first appearance in this book, but most certainly can be expected to be seen again. In the next book, she will be a fifth year with her friend Ginny Weasley. Luna is not a character who is easily understood, by readers nor by her schoolmates. Hopefully, the basics can be covered with these statements: Luna is “odd”, is involved in a conflict (which has no alternate solution after all), and is a many-layered character.