Good moral core - Choices & Circumstances

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 117093


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214"
<dumbledore11214 at y...> wrote:

> 
> 
> 
> Neri:
> > At 15, Tom Riddle was a talented student, a good-looking boy, a 
> > prefect, highly appreciated by both his teachers and his 
> > classmates. 
> > 
> > Yes, he didn't have parents and had to return to the hated muggle 
> > orphanage every summer, but he had friends at Hogwarts and many 
> > good  things to look for in his future. He didn't have to open 
> > the Chamber and he didn't have to murder Myrtle. It was his 
> > choice. 
> > 


> Alla:
> 
> No, he did not have to do all that and I have no sympathy whatsoever 
> towards the choices he made. Moreover, I have less trouble 
> understanding why Tom Riddle made them than why Harry did. Tom hated 
> his father with all his heart and perhaps his sociopathy went from 
> there.
> 
> 
> But what made Harry's free will to work that way? He clearly made 
> his  choices earlier than he was eleven. Why?

bboyminn:

Interesting that you bring Tom's feeling toward his father into the
discussion. But I don't think the key is that he hated is father, as
much as it is WHY he hated his father.

Tom Riddle - abondoned and denied by his father before and after his
birth.

Harry Potter - whose mother and father sacrificed themselves out of
love for their child.

While we can easily find similarities between the two, I think the
above defines the critical difference between the two. One was left
with the bitter impression that he was worthless, the other was valued
more highly than life itself.

In addition, Harry did at least get 18 month of nurturing love before
he lost his parents.

Just a thought.

Steve/bboyminn (was bboy_mn)