Elkins' Draco Malfoy Is Ever So Lame. Yet Sympathetic. And Dead, Too.

[Renee]

No: HPFGUIDX 124468


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03" 
<horridporrid03 at y...> wrote:
> 
> Betsy: 
> the thing is, I don't think I'm reading into these scenes too 
> deeply.  JKR is the one providing the language, the set-up, the 
> outcome.  For someone who's always putting Draco down in her 
> interviews, she really writes him awfully sympathetically.  And I 
> agree with Elkins that JKR knows what she's doing.  It's for these 
> reasons that I really hope Draco turns out to be the "good" 
Slytherin 
> (I'm sure there has to be one for Voldemort to be defeated).  He's 
> always struck me as a lonely boy and he is such an underdog.  It 
> would be nice if he finally had his day.
> 

Renee:
It seems to me that you're taking your personal reading for a 
quality of the narrative here. I, for one, don't see JKR writing 
Draco "awfully sympathetically" at all; to me he comes across as 
somewhat pitiable at best. The main reason for this is that Draco 
(unlike young Snape in the Pensieve Scene) never gets hurt without 
provocation. He's not treated shabbily by fate and he doesn't suffer 
because of one crucial character flaw or bad error of judgement - in 
fact, he's got everything going for him, being the only, spoiled 
child of a rich and influential pureblood wizard. It's his own 
bullying and his filthy mouth that do him in. Also, JKR depicts him 
as a a coward - and courage is the quality she values most in 
people. 

As far as I'm concerned, Draco doesn't qualify for Elkins's hurt-
comfort scenario because of his utter lack of dignity, which can't 
be said of characters like Sirius, Lupin and Snape. OotP only 
reinforced this impression, which is why I'd be highly surprised to 
see him evolve into the "good" Slytherin so many people are 
clamouring for. Of course, he could change now that his father's in 
prison, but reading the end of OotP and seeing how Draco remains as 
twodimensional as ever, I won't get my hopes up.

Renee