Moral Ambiguity in Main Characters.

[eggplant9998]

No: HPFGUIDX 126983


 "Hannah" <hannahmarder at y...> wrote:


> The first criticism was that the books
> "clearly teach that obedience  to rules
> or morality is required only when such 
> obedience serves you best." 

If I have any criticism of the Harry Potter books it's that there is
too little moral ambiguity in them, not too much; one welcome
exception was Harry's use of an Unforgivable curse in book 5, I hope
to see far more of that sort of thing in the future, it makes things
interesting, I don't want to read about Dudley Doright.  And Harry has
broken many rules in his day, but not on of then were rules of
morality, they were rules of bureaucracy. I might add that most of the
horrors in the world were caused by too much respect for the rules not
too little; the fist defense of any war criminal is always "I was just
following orders."

By the way, I think it unlikely the Harry Potter books will be the
fist time children are introduced to moral ambiguity. 

> the gradual corrupting of Hermoine to
> share such situational values

Why is that corrupting? It's a fact, things change according to the
situation. 

> Dumbledore's rewarding or overlooking 
> Harry's blatant disobedience to  rules,
> while acknowledging (in Book 4) his own
> ambiguous moral compass  ("It is my belief
>. that truth is generally preferable to lies.")

You've lost me, I find it hard to believe you disagree with what
Dumbledore said.

Eggplant