JKR, Harry Potter, and the Nature of Evil

[Schlobin at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 19619


> 
> Which raises an interesting question in my mind.  We know, from the 
Mirror
> of Erised, that Harry's deepest desire is to have a real and loving 
family
> around him, and Ron's deepest desire is to be a "star" and set 
himself apart
> from his brothers.  Okay, so Ron's more likely to get in trouble 
than
> Harry -- I'm having a hard time imagining how Harry's desire could 
lead to
> evil, but it's not hard at all to imagine how Ron's could.  (This 
is NOT to
> say I expect Ron to go that route -- as I've said here before, I 
love Ron
> and I think he'll be just fine.)  But I wonder what the deepest 
desires of
> the other Hogwarts crew -- teachers and students -- might be and 
how they
> might be twisted to evil if taken to excess.
> 
> Hermione's greatest desire, I think, would be to know everything.  
But
> sometimes people with an insatiable desire for learning aren't 
always too
> discriminating about what they learn or where they learn it.  I 
don't really
> see Hermione going this route, but she *could* get sucked into dark 
magic if
> she doesn't watch herself.
> 


I would suggest that Ron and Harry's deepest desires are their 
desires at age 14 (sorry if I'm not being very accurate).
I would suggest that what we want as adolescents is oftentimes not 
what we want as adults OR we believe deeply that we want something 
but later figure out we don't.

We can interpret Ron's deepest desire as becoming a "star". OR we can 
interpret his deepest desire to distinguish himself in a positive way.
He might decide to be the best (the most moral, the most courageous, 
the most amazing) of all his siblings. OR,his desire might be to 
distinguish himself by any means and he might decide to "turn to the 
dark side" and distinguish himself by his power over others.
He could go either way. I am betting on positive choices based on my 
respect for Arthur and Molly Weasley and my feelings that all their 
children will do okay. But that's pure speculation and I could be 
wrong.

We can interpret Harry's desire as wanting a real and loving family 
around him. Or, we could interpret it as wanting to belong and fit in 
somewhere. The latter could easily lead him to making bad choices 
that resulted in evil. 

Susan