Dumbledore's past

[eccleston at clara.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 21180

I don't often feel informed enough to post here, but having re-read 
all 4 HP books on a recent holiday I feel impelled to write.

My 7 year old daughter has been very struck by, in effect, the moral 
tone of the books. For example Dumbledore talks about the importance 
of making choices, and Sirius points out to Pettigrew that he had the 
choice not to go to the dark side, but do the honourable thing & get 
killed.

All this talk about making choices forced me to give examples to my 
daughter and I found myself talking about resistance in Germany and 
across Europe to facism in the 30's and then in WW II. That then made 
me think of the comments on the chocolate frog card in PS stating 
that Dumbledore had defeated the dark wizard ? "Grunwald" in 1945. 
Given JKR's constant hinting & giving of clues I tend to look for 
meanings in most of her statements & it made me wonder if she was 
trying to draw any comparisons or allusions here, given the date. 

All of this could, of course, merely be the early onset of dementia, 
but I wonder if anyone else has any views about parallels with 
resistance to oppresive states.

Steve
eccleston at clara.co.uk