Harry v. Tom (was: LV never loved anyone)

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 110496


I, Del, wrote :
"he was going to be hated and despised because of the path Slytherin's
legacy had put him on."
 
SSSusan replied :
"So why didn't he *choose* to deny that?  He did not *have* to follow
Slytherin's path."

Del answers :
Deny it in exchange for *what* ???
Tom was the epitome of the Nobody when he arrived at Hogwarts. He had
no family, no home, no history. All he had was a name. He had no
*identity*. And then suddenly he discovers that he is Someone. Not
just anyone, but the Heir of the legendary Slytherin himself !! This
is like offering food to a starved person : they won't say no, even if
the food tastes a bit weird.

Moreover, Tom himself had no problem with Slytherin's path :
Slytherin's values already coincided very much with his own. A lust
for power and recognition, a disdain of morality, a hatred of Muggles
: Tom already had all of those, more or less developed. He knew many
*other people* had a problem with those values, but he'd never cared
before, so why should he start caring now ?

Tom's path to follow Slytherin might not have been predetermined, but
the temptation was too overwhelming for a severely unbalanced teenager
: alone, he had no chance of making the right decision and choosing to
go back to being Nobody.

SSSusan wrote :
"He **couldn't** summon enough hatred to Crucio Bella, which again
speaks to his fighting impulses very well--even better than he wants
to at the moment, I would say."

Del replies :
I disagree. His Crucio didn't work, but Harry did try it. He failed at
controlling his impulse to use an Unforgivable. If we get in a fight
and I get the impulse to stab you *and I try to do it*, you're not
going to consider it irrelevant, even if I fail at hurting you. You're
going to make it very clear that you expect me to control my impulses
better than that.

Harry was mad and hurting, and he got that impulse to use a curse he
knew was strictly forbidden, to try and make Bella hurt as much as he
did. He couldn't control that impulse and Cruciod Bella. Now imagine
someone who would be hurting emotionally as much as Harry *most of the
time*. Imagine a raging psychopath, someone who is constantly full of
rage and hatred, someone who cannot find any solace in any loving
feeling because they cannot feel love, someone who honestly believe
that the only person that counts is themselves and who couldn't care
less about others' feelings because they cannot in any way relate to
others or feel compassion. Do you *really* expect such a person to
control their impulses for the sake of others ? I don't. As someone
else explained it, the *only* reason they might control their impulses
is their *own* sake.

SSSusan wrote :
"if Tom was able to act the part of law-abiding citizen, responsible
young adult, so well as to attain Prefect & HB status, then he DOES
understand right vs. wrong!!  He is choosing to do what he wants; he
isn't fighting those "id" impulses at all.  And I think, given that it
was quite some time before he discovered the Heir of Slytherin stuff,
that there was ample time for some of this Superego & Ego stuff to
have developed.  I can't prove it, but my belief is that DD did show a
great interest in Tom and tried to help him along."

Del replies :
I couldn't disagree more with your first sentence. Tom was able to act
the part of the good kid because he was intelligent, not because of
any moral belief. Dogs can be trained to bring a stick back just by
giving them food when they do it, but they never grasp the concept of
being a good obedient dog : they do it to satisfy their own greed, not
because of any kind of morality. Similarly, Tom discovered that acting
in certain ways brought interesting responses from people, so he acted
that way. Being a Prefect would be interesting in his quest for the
Chamber of Secrets, so he made sure he acted the part of the good
student in order to be made Prefect. But that doesn't mean he ever
grasped the concept of being a good person. He did it to serve his own
selfish interest, not because he believed he should be a good person.
It was always "I, I, I" all along. And as soon as he was able to get
away from his role of the good student, he did it : he left the known
WW right after graduation. He'd taken all he could out of the official
WW, and now he was going to look for what he was missing in the
underground WW.
Look at it this way : an actor doesn't have to live his character's
life in order to portray him with credibility. An actor doesn't have
to *think* like a psychopath to act the part of a psychopath.
Otherwise, I'd be worried for whoever crosses the path of Anthony
Hopkins, for example...

I agree that DD might have tried to help him. But Tom would have
resented this help very much, both because he was a teenager (even
Harry refuses DD's help more often than not) and because he was a
psychopath. DD's talk of love and relationships (or whatever) would
have made no sense to Tom.

And please Susan, don't get into troubles at your workplace because of
this discussion ! It's not worth it !!

Del