Of identities and truth

[Amanda Geist]

No: HPFGUIDX 38904

I was driving around with no children in the car today, and the resulting
unfamiliar resounding quiet jarred me so much I had an original thought.
Here you go.

Has anyone noticed that people associated with Voldemort seem to spend an
awful lot of time faking identities? It's as if Voldemort's path leads you
away from the truth of yourself. Whereas the Other Side seems to be about
learning the truth of yourself and controlling it (*cough* Snape *cough*).

Off the top of my head:
SS/PS - Quirrell spends the whole year dissembling, playing a stuttering
harmless fool. He does this 24/7. He fools damn near everyone.

CoS - I'm working on it. Ginny being forced to act contrary to her nature
and upbringing and conscience? Voldemort attempting to steal her life
energies, thereby living falsely (i.e., where he should not be living at
all, from appropriating another's energies, if not identity)?

PoA - He's in the first two, of course, but comes into focus
here--Pettigrew, who has spent twelve years pretending he's just a rat. I
suppose it can be argued that one's animagus form *is* an outgrowth of the
truth of oneself, and Pettigrew's form certainly does nothing to deny this,
but taking the animagus form 100% of the time for 12 years is departing a
bit from one's true self, isn't it? Point is, he's disguising himself and
the truth of who he is, in order to hide his own evil.

[Sirius, on the other hand, uses his animagus form straightforwardly as a
disguise, periodically and only when necessary. It's not like he's living
with a family and bringing them their paper.]

GoF - Obviously, Crouch/Moody, who also spends 24/7 being something other
than himself. It seems to be escalating, actually--from faking a personality
change in the first book, to staying permanently in one's legitimate
animagus form in the third, to stealing a totally unrelated person's
identity in the fourth.

Contrast this with Hagrid, who *was* hiding what he was (or at least neatly
managing to ever mention it), and who confronted and accepted it. Also
Snape--he doesn't idly chat with Harry a whole hell of a lot, but the
implication is strong that he also does not advertise his past--but when
push came to shove, he was right there owning up to it, and his was a
position of strength. Or with Harry himself, who spent his first eleven
years with a false identity foisted on him, and is growing into the truth of
himself.

Anybody else got anything? Does this make sense? Voldemort leads you away
from yourself and from truth; the good guys help you learn the truth of
yourself and accept/internalize it, and find the strength in it.

--Amanda PrimaGeist