Levels and contradictions in JKR's writing ( was Re: It's over, Snape is evil )

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 138419

Lupinlore:
> > Furthermore Dumbledore, the very character who is associated
> > with statements about the power of choice and the importance of 
> > trust, seems to relate to him from the very first as a dangerous
> > and deeply flawed child, a child who is in some way corrupt in 
> > his very essence.  In other words, we have a powerful  and 
> > glaring contradiction woven into the basic fabric of the
> > narrative, in which choice and trust is emphasized but the main
> > villain is a monster from birth, the son of a poisoned bloodline.

Jen: How Dumbledore viewed Tom after his first encounter is easy 
enough to guess because he told Harry his first impression: "Did I 
know that I had just met the most dangerous Dark wizard of all 
time?" said Dumbledore. "No, I had no idea that he was to grow up to 
be what he is. However, I was certainly intrigued by him." (chap. 
13. p. 276, US). DD goes on to relate that he felt it necessary to 
keep an eye on him, for his own sake as well as others, and a bit 
later on, that he felt 'uneasy' about Tom's 'obvious instincts for 
cruelty, secrecy and domination.' 

If anything, Dumbledore trusted Tom too much--he didn't tell the 
other teachers about Mrs. Cole's stories or his own interaction with 
Tom; he allowed them to make their own first impressions and for Tom 
to start fresh at Hogwarts. He didn't write Tom off as somehow 
deeply corrupt or evil. Any teacher in any school would watch a 
child closely who has a history of frightening others, hurting 
animals and by his own self-admission, "{making} bad things happen 
to people who annoy me." 

> Pippin:
> The contradiction is not in the narrative, but in the 
> interpretation people have put on it. People have taken 
> Dumbledore's words to mean, "we are what we choose to be."
> 
> I guess it bears repeating that Dumbledore never said "Our choices
> make us what we are." He said, speaking of  Harry's choice not to
> bein Slytherin, that it   "makes you *very different* from Tom 
> Riddle. It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far
> more than our abilities." (emphasis in the text)

Jen: There is some ambiguity in the text about choices. Dumbledore 
also states in GOF: "You fail to recognize that it matters not what 
someone is born, but what they grow to be! Your dementor has just 
destroyed the last remaining member of a pure-blood family as old as 
any--and see what that man chose to make of his life!" (chap.36, p. 
708).

This statement is a good tie-in to Lupinlore's thought that 
Voldemort was doomed to be the son of a poisoned bloodline. DD is 
making the point here that if bloodline were the only important 
thing for a person's life, it should have kept Barty Crouch Jr. from 
becoming the person he became. It wasn't his bloodline in the end, 
but his choices.

Pippin:
> The emphasis is on examining people's choices in order to
> determine who can be trusted, not on the idea that we are solely
> what we choose to be. Indeed, if the latter were true, then
> looking at the choices people have made in the past  would be a
> very poor way to decide whether to trust them,  because they could
> easily choose differently next time.

Jen: Dumbledore proves he believes in a person's ability to change 
by allowing Tom to enter Hogwarts without influencing the other 
teachers and students. And in fact, I think he attempted to give Tom 
many chances along the way to change his trajectory. We see this in 
their last conversation, in this poignant statement: "No nothing," 
said Dumbledore, and a great sadness filled his face. "The time is 
long gone when I could frighten you with a burning wardrobe and 
force you to make repayment for your crimes. But I wish I could 
Tom...I wish I could..." (pps. 445-446). Up until that moment, it 
appears Dumbeldore still believed there might be hope for the boy he 
met that day at the orphanage. That the pieces of goodness in young 
Tom Riddle might reassert themselves and overcome the evil creation 
of Voldemort. 
 
Pippin:
> How people become evil is a separate issue. To say that Voldemort
> was not born evil does not say that his miserable heritage and 
> upbringing did nothing to influence the choices he made. Obviously 
> they did, but it is by the choices Riddle made that we are to know
> this, not by his heritage and upbringing alone.
> 
> Merope and Morfin had the same degenerate bloodline, even more
> desperate poverty and lovelessness to contend with, but by their
> choices, we know they were not murderers.

Jen: So true. Admittedly, Tom had very little to work with, given 
the strikes against him in both nature and nurture. But I believe 
JKR is making the point of how truly difficult it is to sow the 
seeds of pure evil in a basically good person. Tom never had the 
chance to live the life of a Hermione or a Ron, but he actively 
worked against his base nature of goodness and *chose* to obliterate 
his soul, even after the opportunity presented itself to become a 
different kind of person when he discovered he was a wizard. 

Jen