While reading the topic about have a new female protagonist from here and Silent Hill Community.
I just realize that this game typically had two protagonist one you start off playing
know unknown person that's Cheryl for some parts and second you play Harry for the other.
So doesn't that mean we have two female protagonist only that they're both the same person with a different personality and from a different universe?

edit: By that I mean Silent Hill 3 isn't the only game that has a female main character.
Well Silent Hill 2 had Maria's Born from a Wish but I think that's something a little different from what I mean.
I'm sorry If confused anyone about it.

I like to think that Cheryl is the game's only actual protagonist, as I also like to think that "Harry" is nothing more than Cheryl's mental avatar. Because, when you get right down to it, the real Harry Mason is dead and is not involved in anything we see going on. In a way, this mental construct serves the purpose of being both a layer of safety and distance behind which Cheryl can revisit her past traumas as an observer rather than rehashing the painful role of acting participant. This also serves the purpose of letting her live out the pitiful fantasy of having her 'father' around, because she seems to think that his absence is one of the primary causes of her life being so shitty.

Remember that "Harry's" personality starts out as a blank slate, and however it turns out, it does so because Cheryl defines it, consciously and otherwise. The only aspects of his personality which are constant every time are his displays of love and concern for her, both because it's the personality trait which stood out most to her and had the most impact on her, and because it may be the only one which is not exaggerated by her assumptions and nostalgia.

This is quiet a clever aspect of the story and gameplay, isn't it? I was fond of realizing that the player is just as blind to the truth as Cheryl is blind and/or in denial about it. Her use of Harry as an avatar throughout her nightmare led me to believe that he was far more important in why Cheryl's life had turned out so messed up until the point when she seeks therapy. Though I never felt misled, because the clues given throughout the game revealed the reality of the situation at a pace that was just right.

Not to say Harry didn't play any part in Cheryl's life taking a nosedive after his death. He did, after all, pass when she was very young, which is bound to have an impact on an impressionable child, especially since she seemed to favor him over Dahlia. The problems continued in part because Cheryl kept placing so much weight on his absence or even trying to "resurrect" him as a deciding factor in her own happiness and self-esteem.

I've seen many people live their lives like this - they get complexes from impacting events and create or harden these grounded in paradigms that keep them on those inhibiting tracks. Of course I've been guilty of doing this before.

I agree that Cheryl (the player) is really driving the entire events, I still prefer to think of Harry as a real manifestation walking around having his own experiences a la Maria.

I like that idea, too, though the only problem I have with it is the ending. Wouldn't Dr. Kaufman be really shocked to see Harry waltz on in at the end of the game if he knows Harry has passed, and even more shocked to see him fall into shattered ice chunks?

Or would that scene be considered a more metaphorical take on what's happening in Cheryl's mind at that point? Like since Cheryl draws her conclusion, Harry's presence becomes specific to her.

It could also be that Kaufman just doesn't see him, just like Maria doesn't go into the Bowling Alley because Eddie and Laura probably can't see her.

That makes the most sense. From his point of view, it would just look like her reflecting on the realization, having a catharsis.

In the end, Cheryl finally brought her father into the place of reality. Till then, we can say, everything was a fabrication (before he enters the room). When Harry is finally placed in a reality sorrounding, Cheryl realizes that he cannot fit in there, he cannot fit reality, and therefore, he ceases to exist.

This is my sentiment. Until the reveal at the end, you might think Harry is the protagonist, and you might think he is in the chair in the Kaufman sessions.

Harry really does functions as a construct which allows Cheryl to navigate her memories and whatever gaps she is filling in.