Harry Potter not a children's book?

[jonathandupont at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 23745

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Sofie " <sofie_elisabeth at y...> wrote:
> I know many of you have argued time and time again that the Harry 
> Potter books weren't originally aimed at children however I'd like 
to 
> point out some things that suggest to the contray.
> 
> My main point is the characters. Apart from Voldemort, not a single 
> character could be described as entirely evil. Even Peter 
Pettigrew, 
> betrayer of his friends, was once good. He can't have always been 
> what he is now, otherwise good people like Remus, Sirius, James and 
> Lily would not have been his friends. Even lucius Malfoy, who is 
not 
> somebody I'd like to be enemies with has one redeeming quality. I 
do 
> believe that he does genuinely care about his son. He may not show 
it 
> obviously but the way he kicked up a fuss about Buckbeak biting 
Draco 
> indicated his feelings to me. Yes he did get carried away with 
> getting Buckbeak executed but if someone or something hurts your 
> child your first instinct is to hurt it back. Anyway back to my 
> point, Voldemort is the only one who could be described as entirely 
> evil and he is a monster not human. All the other human characters 
> have redeeming features. I believe this was so children don't get 
to 
> scared by the books. Revealing that people can be evil to young 
> children is never a good idea. The result of this is world-weary 
> cynical children who don't know how to trust. The discovery of 
purely 
> evil people should not be made until well into your teenage years 
if 
> not as an adult. JKR is a mother who reads Harry Potter to her 
child, 
> I don't think she could bear to subject Jessica to that knowledge.

Personally, I don't believe in purely evil people - in my opinion, 
that's the childish notion. It's shades of grey and the idea that 
good people can do bad things that are the ideas people have to 
learn. Similarly, I believe that everyone can be reformed - if not, 
why don't we just shoot everyone who goes to prison?