Family (Was "Pity for Voldemort")

[pcaehill2]

No: HPFGUIDX 104913

"delwynmarch" wrote:
> > First he's an orphan who was raised in an orphanage.[snip]
> > Third, all the time he spends looking for the CoS makes me feel 
that he was craving a feeling of *belonging*, of *family*. [snip]
 
> Demetra wrote:[snip]
> Your post made me think again about how closely Tom Riddle's 
> childhood was to Harry's.  Both orphans, raised in an environment 
of abuse/indifference.  We know Harry's deepest desire was a 
*family*, Tom's may have been also.  
[snip]
> Harry will see the boy Tom was and what he has become and think 
there but for the grace of God, go I.

I agree, Demetra.  I think that finding a family (or being found by 
one, as Harry was by the Weasley's) is a major theme here.   In 
fact, if you examine the folks from loving families alongside those 
folks from families who put the 'fun' in 'dysfunctional', you get a 
picture not of doom (e.g., if you don't have loving parents you'll 
end up evil) but of the power of choosing to be *related* to others--
this is what makes Harry so different from Tom, Barty Crouch Jr., 
and even Percy. (And may be why Percy's rejection of his family is 
so key to his character.)

Tom's & Barty's lack of a loving home feeds their anger, sense of 
betrayal/loss, etc. But they each choose to nurse this resentment, 
and seek to fill the gap with things that won't (ultimately) assuage 
their real hurts. Barty ironically seeks a father figure in Tom, the 
least likely candidate for such a role! (I'm reminded of the 
phrase, "you can't buy oranges in a hardware store"!)

But even if choice, as DD emphasizes, is crucial to character, it's 
not necessarily damning--I don't think JKR is painting a world 
wherein the 'evil' people can be written off as less than human.  I 
think Harry will see how close he has come to making rash and angry 
choices that could have ended disastrously. And this insight may 
feed his empathy for those who chose anger, isolation, and 'false' 
family (e.g., death-eaters).

Empathy does not equal refraining from punishment, however--crimes 
have consequences.  LV will die. But how does Harry keep from seeing 
himself as a murderer, lowering himself to LV's level, if he's to 
fulfill the prophecy? I have no idea.

Pam (who thinks that Darth Vader made a fake deathbed conversion, 
which Luke should never have fallen for)