OOP: Re: Spoiler: Sirius the 'Jerk'

[curly_of_oster]

No: HPFGUIDX 62064

Okay, I've been a lurker here for a while now, and this is my first 
post to the list.  I was going to just do it from scratch, and call 
it "Death--cause, effect, and greater meaning," or something like 
that, but I thought Darrin's reply to Edis was a good jumping off 
point, so here goes (note, I'm using the web interface, so I 
apologize if there is some wonky formatting):

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "darrin_burnett" 
<bard7696 at a...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "edisbevan" 
<A.E.B.Bevan at o...> 
> wrote:
> > S
> > P
> > O
> > I
> > L
> > E
> > R
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > S
> > P
> > A
> > C
> > E
> > .
> > .

Edis said:
> > Sirius had a lot of insights and blindnesses... 
> > 
> > In GoF he says (paraphrase follows) 'look at how someone treats 
> > his inferiors not his superiors that gives the measure of a     
> >  man...'
> > This in support of Hermiones comments on Crouch senior's 
treatment 
> of 
> > Winky...
> > 
> > Now in OOTP Sirius is measured by that test on the treatment 
> of 'his' 
> > house-elf and fails it.  And this choice rebounds on him...
> > 
> > 
> > Edis
 
And Darrin replies:
> This is a really good point. I almost thought this was a flint    
> until 
> D-Dore specifically says - page 834 -- that Sirius was kind to    
> house-
> elves in general, but had a feud going with Kreacher.
> 
> Notice how D-Dore is surrounded in many ways by people who can't 
get 
> past their own feelings? Snape's hate for James hurts his ability 
to 
> help Harry learn Occlumency. Sirius' hate for Kreacher contributes 
to 
> Sirius getting killed. 
> 
> Darrin
> -- My first OoP page citation. Sniff.

Okay, on to me:
First, as to this particular point--I think, Darrin, that you've 
actually brought out two things here.  I agree that Sirius' hate for 
Kreacher contributes to his death.  However, I'm not so sure that it 
is exactly a 'failure' on Sirius' part to be someone who treats 
his 'inferiors' decently.  As Darrin points out, Sirius was kind to 
house-elves in general.  He had a specific problem with Kreacher 
(and, to be fair, Kreacher had a specific problem with him).  
Certainly, Sirius could have tried to be kind to Kreacher, but while 
I was reading the book, I felt I could well understand why he 
wasn't.  And I think this echoes my feelings about Sirius' character 
and behavior throughout the story.  

He is not shown in the best light a lot of the time, but I also 
think that drawing too many conclusions from this (he's a bad 
influence on Harry, he couldn't be a proper father-figure, etc.) may 
be a bit unfair, given the affect his circumstances are having on 
him.  I think this also is true in terms of what caused his death.

To elaborate:  
Certainly, Sirius' dealings with Kreacher contributed to the chain 
of events that led him to the veil/death room.  But frankly, I think 
that Dumbledore is right to take as much of the blame as he does.  
Surely he must have had some knowledge of Sirius' family.  In fact, 
since Sirius was still a student at the time, I would be very 
surprised if Dumbledore didn't know all about his leaving home and 
going to live with the Potters.  When he talks to Harry, he makes it 
plain that he knows that Sirius was not the sort of person who took 
well to sitting around doing nothing, especially not when others 
were out putting themselves at risk.  

Although Dumbledore seems mainly to be admitting that not telling 
Harry more about his visions was a mistake, I think his treatment of 
Sirius is equally wrongheaded.  He tells Harry that he was trying to 
keep Sirius alive, but how can he not have seen how badly his method 
of doing so was likely to go.  Sirius spent the better part of his 
adult life in prison.  He escapes, and eventually reaches a point 
where a lot of 'important' people know he's innocent, and then he's 
almost immediately locked up again.  I totally agree with a couple 
of previous posters who said that it was as if he'd exchanged one 
prison for another.  And once again, he's force-fed bad memories, 
this time via the house itself, his mother's portrait, and his 
family's house elf.  Honestly, I'm not surprised that his mental 
state was less than wonderful.  

Interestingly, as I gain distance from having read the story, I find 
this particular aspect of it even *more* maddening, as Harry and 
Hermione are the only ones who seem to have any sense of what being 
confined to 12 Grimmauld Place is doing to Sirius.  Molly throws 
Azkaban in his face.  Snape taunts him with accusations of cowardice 
(not surpisingly, and I am well aware that Sirius is no better to 
Snape than Snape is to Sirius, but there's no evidence that anyone 
contradicts or tries to stop him).  Dumbledore knows what kind of 
personality Sirius has, and he can't find *anything* for him to do 
other than clean the house?  Wasn't there something he could do to 
make Sirius feel less useless and impotent?  

Okay, so this was supposed to be about cause, effect, and deeper 
meaning, right?  I think that may be a bit much for one post, so 
perhaps some general observations on the subject as a whole (and 
maybe more later).  I think that a horrible coincidence of events 
and circumstances ultimately led to Sirius' death, and that no 
single person was at fault.  Harry could have tried harder to learn 
from Snape.  Snape could have gotten past his grudges and emotional 
reactions and kept teaching Harry.  Dumbledore could have told Harry 
more, and could also have done better with Sirius.  Sirius could 
have made more of an effort to be nice to the elf.  Etc., and so 
forth. <g>  I totally understand how things ended up as they did.  
Effect/deeper meaning?  I'm still stuck on this.  Some have said 
there simply isn't a deeper meaning, while others have postulated 
that Sirius's death was necessary for Harry's development.  I'm not 
sure I'm happy with any of these, but I guess I'll save that topic 
for another post.

As to people's opinons of Sirius as a whole, I get the impression 
that OotP didn't change them much.  People who didn't like him 
before see the 'arrogant berk' of MWPP, and the unstable man in the 
present timeline, and this reinforces their view.  People who liked 
him before may adjust their views somewhat in terms of his teenage 
self, but overall seem to feel sympathy for him in the present 
timeline.

Lisa