Draco the Dragon

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 124650


bob:
> So why did JKR include Draco into the story?
> JKR said herself that Draco is pure evil. She did this on
> purpose.

SSSusan:
Can you provide a link to a place where JKR described Draco thusly?  
I don't recall her using that term, though I could certainly have 
forgotten.


bob:
> Draco is Harry's first arch-nemesis: his opposite and his
> enemy

SSSusan:
True


bob:
> Draco brings to the story complexity of ethics, angst, and
> drama. He is the symbol of pureblood vs. muggleblood racism,
> a central theme in JKRs storyline. Who better to give us the
> perspective of the dark side of the wizard world but an
> anti-matter Harry opposite the same age and social equal
> status? 


SSSusan:
I think I might posit Tom Riddle here.  Draco is so 2-D, so wholly 
UNfleshed-out, that I can't see him as bringing the complexity of 
anything to the stor, let alone heavy-weight issues like ethics, 
angst & drama.


bob:
> Harry is perceived as a hero character without question
> BECAUSE Draco is (by reflection) a villain. 

SSSusan:
Again, while I don't argue that Draco is a bully and Harry's chief 
schoolboy rival/nemesis, I don't think Draco is what causes us to 
perceive Harry as a hero character.  At all.

I think we think of Harry as being a hero for having survived 10 
years w/ the Dursleys [and for setting that snake on Dudley!].  
I think we might even see Harry as being a hero for noticing Ron's 
poorness and buying all that candy to share with him.  Certainly we 
see him as a hero [perhaps a very rash one] for going after the 
stone & for not giving into "there is no right or wrong -- only 
power", for going after Ginny, for going after the person he thought 
killed his parents & then rescuing him once he realized he hadn't.  
We think of him as a hero for standing up to Voldemort and fighting 
in the graveyard and for bringing Cedric's body back.  

These are the kinds of things I think which bring us to class Harry 
as a hero.  I don't think of his just being Draco's rival as putting 
him there.

Siriusly Snapey Susan