Good moral core (Re: Dirty Harry/Clean Harry)

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 117066


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "nkafkafi" <nkafkafi at y...> wrote:
> 
> > Del:"This to me begs the question : WHY ? Why does Harry have this 
> > ultra-good core and not LV ? Were they born that way or did they 
> > acquire their cores while growing-up ?    I'm not sure there's an
> > answer, I'm just wondering."
> 
> > Jim Ferer:
> > How did Harry get that way? We won't settle the nature/nurture
> > argument here
> ><snip>
> 
> Neri:
> The problem with both nature and nurture is that they discount the 
> free will. LV would be able to excuse himself with "I'm bad because I 
> have Slytherin's blood in me" (nature) or "I'm bad because I didn't 
> have even a single year with loving parents" (nurture). But JKR's 
> position seems to be that you are not allowed to excuse yourself with 
> such reasons, good as they might be. Both LV and Harry have free 
> will. LV is evil because he decided to be evil. Harry is good because 
> he decided to be good. To ask for either nature or nurture reasons 
> would be discounting their free will.

I agree with you 100% on that. It IS the choices we make and the
responsibility we MUST take for ourselves.  We don't start from blank
slates, however, and neither did Harry or Tom.  It would be
interesting to see the "evil" Harry and the "good" Tom that might have
resulted from different choices on either hand.

"Evil" Harry might have manipulated the people around him and traded
on his fame to take advantage of others; "good" Tom, while sometimes
ruthless, uses his qualities to fight fire with fire. Very
speculative, and who knows how it might have turned out?

Jim

Jim