[HPforGrownups] Re: JKR characterizations--oversimplification?

[Magda Grantwich]

No: HPFGUIDX 115178

--- Jen Reese <stevejjen at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Jen again: Loyalty to James, and the belief that it's better to die
> than to betray your friends, is Sirius' personal conviction. An 
> ideal can be anything a person believes in wholeheartedly and 
> strives to live up to, whether it relates to the community or an 
> individual. No one has to agree with you, and the conviction
> doesn't have to be "good", for you to hold it!

That's not a conviction; that's loyalty to his best friend and
almost-brother.  Sirius would have backed James no matter what, no
questions asked.  Had James gone over to the Dark, then Sirius would
have too.  

And IMO "die before betraying friends" is the kind of Boys-Own trite
platitude that most teenagers drop as they get older and realize that
while some causes are worth dying for you don't talk about it so
glibly.  And to have assumed that Peter Pettigrew would have faced
the same dangers with the same courage as James and Sirius did when
they both knew what a little suck-up he was shows that they hadn't
really processed what would be needed to follow through on the
all-for-one-one-for-all commitment.

 
> Jen: He may "spout personal philosophy" but he 
> tends to back it up with corresponding actions.

Yes...until those actions mean he has to be nice to someone he
doesn't like (Kreacher, Snape), or that he has to do something he
doesn't want to do (fight in the MoM rather than grab Harry and run
to ensure that he'd be safe - I mean, yelling at Harry to run when he
knows that Harry doesn't know his way around the MoM and might run
into another group of DE's - get a brain, Sirius!), or that he has to
suck up his own disappointment because of the greater good (being
pouty in 12GP and letting everyone know about it by sulking with
Buckbeak for hours on end) or think in advance of what effect his
talk or actions will have on Harry ("you're less like your father
than I thought").  

Sirius talks a better game than he walks.

Magda


		
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