[HPforGrownups] Weasley Courage (Was Re: Dolores Umbridge)

[RoxyElliot at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 139042

<<You know, I am sick and tired of people trashing Percy just because  
he made a choice that was objectionable to his family. >>
 
I didn't trash Percy, but I'm going to respond to some of this post.   Percy 
is actually one of my favorite characters.  He's a wonderful foil to  the 
twins and in the earlier books his heart is in the right place.
 
But Percy didn't just make a choice that was objectionable to his  family.  
He made a choice to do what was easy rather than what was  right.  In the 
Potterverse that's a big part of what seems to define a  character, especially in 
the last two books. 
 
<<Dare I 
remind you that this so-called "Slytherin" choice was  made *after* 
his father suggested that Percy gained the post because Fudge  wanted 
to spy on the rest of the family and their connection to Dumbledore,  
rather than his own merit?  To a nineteen-year-old who had just  
gotten a promotion most wizards twice his age would probably kill 
for,  that had to have hurt>>
 
I don't think that justifies Percy's actions in the least.  Deep down  he 
probably knew it to be the truth.  Otherwise why shut his family out so  
completely?  Percy is a smart talented guy, but to get such a promotion at  so young 
an age suggests that it wasn't about his smarts or talents.
 
<<Going back to your family's home for Christmas 
dinner, a year  and a half after you moves out, and staying through 
the meal when only your  mother welcomes you and the rest of your 
family either ignores you or is  hostile to you is courageous>>
 
Percy wasn't going back to see his family.  He went to help his boss  have a 
minute or two alone with Harry.  Worse still he was willing to  manipulate his 
family's emotions in order to do it.  That's not  courage.  That doesn't even 
come close to courage.
 
<<He's the everyman 
of the Weasley family>>
 
Percy was a top student, and head boy at school.  He now, at under 25,  holds 
a top position in the Ministry of Magic.  He is not an  Everyman.
 
Again, I like Percy.  I have faith that in the end he'll finally do  what's 
right.  But he hasn't shown much bravery in books 5 or 6.  He's  shown more 
loyalty to his own ambition than anyone else.  Percy has left  behind the values 
he was raised with, but I think Redemption will come for him  in the end.
 
CGG
http://Caffeinatedgeekgirl.typepad.com


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