Tom, evil, choices

[iris_ft]

No: HPFGUIDX 134470

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "delwynmarch" 
<delwynmarch at y...> wrote:
(Snip most part of an excellent post)
> I don't believe he ever CHOSE to be so self-centered. That's just 
the
> way he was born, and nothing in his upbringing ever countered 
that. He
> never learned to relate to anyone else, to bond with anyone else. 
Love
> and compassion are not things that he rejects: they are things that
> *he doesn't know*, as the Prophecy says. And where there is no
> knowledge, there can't be choices. 
> 
> To put it in an extreme way: LV never chose to be Evil, it's just 
that
> he never knew Good, he was never presented with Love in a way that
> could reach through his inborn barriers. He did not reject Good and
> Love, he simply never felt them, never understood them.
> 
> Just my opinion, of course.
> 
> Del

I agree with what you say; Tom's behaviour and evolution have 
probably much to do with his original loneliness,and he's probably 
paying for his family's traditions, and for the Pureblood ideology. 
However, I have a little issue with the last part. Maybe Tom wasn't 
given love when he was in his first years, and I acknowledge this is 
something very important in the character's psychology. However, he 
met dumbledore, he was his student. Dumbledore is the kind of 
teacher that loves his students, and since their first meeting, he 
tried to correct young Tom's bad tendencies. Maybe Dumbledore's love 
wasn't enough; maybe Tom thought his first "lesson" was nothing but 
one more humiliation;I don't know.
However, Tom had examples of Good and of Love; he had a conscience: 
he could choose them instead of becoming Lord Voldemort. Or was he 
lost from the start? Do our first months determinate our life so 
definitely that it becomes impossible to change it regarding some 
aspects? Are we given so little choice?
I'm unable to answer. I reckon there are many things to say 
concerning that topic, that it has to do with both psychology and 
philosophy. And I'd be grateful if you, or someone else, could give 
me the beginning of an answer.

Amicalement,

Iris