Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil (Nel Question - LONG)

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 38329

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "heiditandy" <heidit at n...> wrote:
> This week's question from the Phil Nel database...
> 
>  Why has Rowling drawn connections between Voldemort and Harry?  In
> linking these characters so closely, is she suggesting some kinship
> between opposites?  Are good and evil bound closely together?  Can 
> you think of other characters in the series who, though they appear 
> to be opposites, are in fact more alike than we initially suspect?

I think the Harry-Voldemort similarities are there to highlight the
theme of choices being the deciding factor that makes people who they
are.  Harry and Tom Riddle started at very similar points, but went in
totally different directions.  This serves both to point out Harry's
fundamental decency, and to establish that Voldemort wasn't just a
victim of circumstances.

> Voldemort personified evil, that is clear. We have never seen him, 
> in any of his incarnations, do anything that could be deemed 
> deliberately good or helpful (although an argument can be made that 
> he was inadvertently helpful to the students of Hogwarts back in the 
> 40s, when he managed to get Aragog out of the castle).
> 
> Have we, however, met no character who thoroughly personified the 
> forces of good?

It seems to me that evil, in the HP universe, is represented by
rejection of moral conflict.  "No good or evil, only power and those
too weak to wield it."  For people like Voldemort, Lucius, and Draco
(who may not be evil yet, but is rapidly heading in that direction),
the only relevant questions about a prospective course of action are
"what's in it for me?" and "can I get away with it?"  The question "is
this the right thing to do?" is irrelevant to them.  This absence of
conflict makes HP evil simplistic enough that a single character like
Voldemort can personify it.

Good, on the other hand, is all about facing moral conflict head-on. 
It's about examining situations to figure out what the right (and not
the easy) thing to do is, and then doing it.  This opens all sorts of
possibilities for conflicts and mistakes.  A good person can fail to
figure out what the right thing to do is; or they can figure it out
but failt to do it because it's too difficult.  Or several good people
can disagree on what the right thing is.  Being good is complicated
undertaking -- too complicated for a single person to personify it. 
Dumbledore probably comes closest, but he's made his share of
mistakes.  (For example, I believe that his handling of the Prank and
its aftermath was a case of failing to figure out the right course of
action.  And so was his public humiliation of Slytherin House at the
end of PS/SS)

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com