A Sockful of Sweets--Was: Re: Albus Dumbledore and the Socks

[Wanda Sherratt]

No: HPFGUIDX 80470

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "msbeadsley" <msbeadsley at y...> 
wrote:
> 
> IN DEFENSE OF SWEETNESS
> 
> The saga *started out* after all with a great deal of sweetness 
> (Harry forms a friendship with Ron over Chocolate Frogs) without 
> being (an aside:  I've been an Anglophile forever and love all the 
> British variants) treacly.  Isn't Dumbledore known for his love of 
> confections?  Isn't fighting Voldemort as much about how he takes 
the 
> sweetness out of life and makes it not worth living (think 
> Longbottoms, and there's *another* reference to sweets with the 
> Droobles) as it is about moral stances?  I wonder how sweet Death 
is 
> to eat?  I'd imagine it's rather bitter.  The places the story has 
> become less sweet (as Sylvia says, "the ghastly things that have 
been 
> happening in Harry's world") it has been a result of Voldemort's 
> doings; even Harry's first *romance*, with Cho Chang, comes apart 
> because his girl can't stop crying about her former boyfriend, the 
> one Voldemort murdered (yeah, I know, Peter held the wand); not to 
> mention what widened the gap:  Cho's friend ratted out Harry's 
> efforts to make people safer--from Voldemort.  What kept Harry at 
the 
> Dursleys, a place where life had almost no sweetness, for his 
first 
> eleven years?  Voldemort.  Think back to LOTR; The Shire 
represents 
> all that is sweet and good and simple in the world, and it is the 
> place Gandalf worries for most as Sauron comes back to power.  
> Sweetness is what we're fighting for.  If we lose sight of that, 
if 
> we lose the ability to appreciate a good sherbet lemon drop, we've 
> given in.  Sauron, or Grindelwald, or Voldemort, or whoever it is, 
> wins.  We might as well each hold a house party and invite the 
> dementors.
> 
I think that idea holds a lot of good sense. When people are hurt or 
suffering in some way, they're given a big piece of chocolate to 
eat - it's almost a kind of restorative.  Ron and Hermione send 
Harry Honeyduke's chocolate for his birthday, which he rejects out 
of bitterness (one of his truly nasty moments).

Wanda