Of identities and truth (and Boggarts)

[brenna_britton]

No: HPFGUIDX 38909

Amanda Geist wrote:

> Has anyone noticed that people associated with Voldemort seem to 
spend an
> awful lot of time faking identities? 

<snip>

Examples:
SS/PS - Quirrel
COS - Ginny's forced actions
POA - Pettigrew
GOF - Crouch Jr.


Amanda, you've got a very interesting point, and I just have one more 
character to add to your list: Tom Riddle. In COS, Voldemort assumes 
the identity of his younger self, which was his true identity at one 
point, but certainly isn't now. Moreove, Tom presents a false front 
designed to gain Ginny's trust and enable him to feed on her soul. No 
matter how naive Ginny may have been to use  the diary, she never 
would have picked it up if she had known Tom's true identity.

I think that the connection between Voldemort, his cohorts, and false 
identities is legitimate, because it reinforces the evils of 
deception and manipulation. It goes back to the basic battle between 
good and evil, and truth versus lies. Harry and Hagrid, through their 
individual journeys, develop integrity and an honest self-image. They 
have no need to hide behind a facade, like their enemies. This gives 
the good guys strength and purpose, and I have to wonder this: is it 
possible or likely that, by adopting numerous or prolonged false 
identies, a person could lose or forget a part of themselves and 
thereby be robbed of their purpose? Maybe that's akin to a Boggart's 
indecision when confronted by a group of people? In other words, 
someone can be wearing so many different facades that they lose track 
of what's real and what's not, and metaphorically (or literally) 
collapse under the guise.

Sorry, that may be getting a bit existential, but it just reminds me 
of the masks that people wear every day and how we can easily lose 
touch with our true selves by adopting and then internalizing 
external values. Perhaps the Boogarts really are an example of this 
phenomena (it's my pet theory that they represent adolescent identity 
crises). That's my two cents, which kind of turned into at least 
twenty-five or thirty cents by accident ;)

Brenna