"innate goodness" (Was: JKR's Messages)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 120868


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" 
<justcarol67 at y...> wrote:
> 
> Carol earlier:
> > > I don't know about either of you, but I'm bothered by the 
word "innate," which suggests that their goodness is inborn--a 
concept very much at odds with the idea of choice. If they're 
innately good, they can make mistakes (and they do), but they 
can't become evil.<
> > 
> > Pippin responded:
> > 
> > I'm not sure I follow you. 'Innate' doesn't have to mean 
'inviolate.'  Innate goodness can be damaged, and is, by the 
choices of others and by the characters' own choices. Once 
damaged, the characters may have to fight their own instincts in 
order to choose good.

> 
> Carol again:
> "Innate" means both "inborn" and "essential to." 
> 
> Here's Merriam-Webster's definition in case mine is unclear:
<snip>
> 
> So if Harry and company are "innately good," goodness is part 
of their *essence* and therefore unchangeable and 
incorruptible.<

Pippin:
Um, that's too much of a leap for me.  Regardless of  what 
essence means in our world, how can any  'essence' be 
unchangeable and incorruptible in a world where a 
mild-mannered human can become a raging werewolf? Unless 
you are saying that the particular essence of goodness is to be 
unchangeable and incorruptible, but that's a philosophical 
argument I don't see put forward in the books. The unicorn is 
purely innocent, according to Firenze, but I don't see him 
describing humans that way. 

The way I see it, in the Potterverse human goodness is innate, 
but still fragile and  corruptible as all human things are. Just 
because one is born with a characteristic doesn't mean it can't 
be changed by choice. 

I see a metaphor in which the human capacity for goodness is 
sheltered by love and damaged by anger and hate in very literal 
ways, so that Lily's sacrifice, *her* choice, has protected Harry 
from the anger and hate of those around him in a way that Draco 
and Riddle were not. But I also see that protection being worn 
away or circumvented so that Harry's choices become 
paramount. 

Pippin