Who, exactly, is Dumbledore

[sophierom]

No: HPFGUIDX 89322

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "meltowne" <meltowne at y...> 
wrote:
> I know it's a bit of a leap, but what if Dumbledore isn't Ron, but 
> Harry?  What if Harry goes back 150 years to live after he defeats 
> Voldemort?  Maybe he doesn't want to live in a time & place where 
> everybody knows him, and expects great things of him.
> 
> He would know what Tom Riddle was before he even became LV, but 
would 
> be unable to do anything about it - or risk altering his own 
past.  
> He would know how he would be treated as a young child, but unable 
to 
> change it.
> 
> His wisdom and intelligence would still be based on age and 
> experience, just a different childhood than we might expect.  Of 
> course, then we have to figure out where his brother came from, if 
he 
> really is his brother.


Sophierom:

This is an interesting theory, but I don't think it could work.  
Unlike the Ron=Dumbledore theory, the Harry=Dumbledore theory lacks 
evidence of physical resemblence. Also, I can't imagine Harry 
wanting to relive his experiences against LV.  

I don't think I can accept the time travel plots related to 
Dumbledore, though I'm very tempted to do so.  I think the reason 
that this idea is so tempting is that we're looking for some reason 
to explain a contradiction of sorts: how is that Dumbledore can be 
so wise and so powerful a wizard, yet end the end, do little to 
spare Harry from his painful experiences?  

Now, this may sound blasphemous, and I apologize in advance for 
offending anyone, but this contradiction reminds me a lot of the way 
many debate the issues of omnipotence and omniscence of God (or 
whatever supreme being(s) one chooses to believe in).  If God is all 
knowing, how can God let bad things happen? Does it mean that God is 
actually not all powerful? Or perhaps God is not all knowing? If God 
is all powerful and all knowing, doesn't that mean God lets bad 
things happen to good people? And if this is so, doesn't that make 
God cruel?

I actually think JKR does not mean to equate Dumbledore with God, 
but instead, she makes Dumbledore the ultimate parent figure. When 
children are young, they look to their parents, guardians, or other 
forms of leadership/authority with awe ... in some ways, these 
people are the gods of their young worlds. They seem to control 
major events; they are responsible for creating the children (either 
literally in the case of parents or figuratively creating the 
child's world in the case of other authority figures) and guiding 
them through life.  In relative terms, the parent figure seems all 
powerful and all knowing .

But as children get older, they begin to question these figures and 
the roles they play in their lives ... imagine the heartbreak a 
child feels when her parent figure can't help her out in a bad 
situation or when the parent figure can't explain why something is 
happening to her. Basically, children begin to learn that their 
parent figures aren't all knowing and aren't all powerful. And this 
leads to disillusionment and distress. 

I think this heartbreak and angst is what Harry's going through now. 
He looks to Dumbledore with awe and wonder in the first few books.  
Here's this wise, powerful wizard who, in the end, helps Harry make 
everything all right. But as events (and life in general) get more 
complicated, Dumbledore can no longer fix everything for Harry.  And 
this hurts Harry; he becomes disillusioned with this hero figure who 
isn't perfect anymore.

As readers who experience things from Harry's POV, I think we tend 
to feel this disillusionment as well.  For some of us, that 
manifests itself in the ESE!Dumbledore theories. Since he knows so 
much but doesn't help Harry, he must be evil! For others, the time 
travel theories are attractive ... they help to explain why 
Dumbledore seems to know so much but is ultimately powerless when it 
comes to Harry's most painful experiences. (Btw, I don't mean to 
simplify anyone's interesting theories ... just rushed for time 
here. )

None of this is to say that the above theories can't be correct; who 
knows how JKR sees Dumbledore.  But she's obviously done a great job 
of conveying Harry's feelings toward Dumbledore; otherwise, we 
wouldn't spend so much time wondering just who this interesting 
character really is!

Sophierom