The good Slytherin (Draco Malfoy)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 131519

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "John Kearns" <jmkearns at g...> 
wrote:
<SNIP>
> 
> Betsy Hp graces the surface of an issue (amidst a good argument) 
> that I believe will have to come to the forefront of the story in 
> the next two books, and which will hit us in the face with 
> the 'Slytherin is evil' standpoint the books have taken to this 
> point: Draco Malfoy is not yet himself.
> 
> I don't mean he is being Imperio-ed or anything like that.  But I, 
> at least, tend to forget while reading the books that Harry, 
Malfoy, 
> and the rest are all *kids* - kids who, even at the end of their 
> fifth year, are only just beginning to feel out and understand 
their 
> own personalities and opinions.

<SNIP>
> 
> We've very little indication to this point, however, that Draco 
> Malfoy has experienced anything similar.  He still espouses the 
> ideas and rhetoric of his father and acts toward his peers in ways 
> that demonstrate a lack of understanding of potential 
consequences.  
> But though at the end of OotP we don't see much of Draco, we do 
see 
> a chain of events that almost certainly should make him *think* 
> about his role - his father exposed as a criminal, his arch-enemy 
> revealed to be a hero, and almost certainly the full gravity of 
> Voldemort's ideals, now that his family, too, has been torn 
apart.  
> Perhaps even that his buddy Goyle is having a change of heart (why 
> the heck isn't he on the inquisitorial squad?).
> 
> Now Draco may react in any number of ways, and I'm certainly not 
> here to suggest that he will be crawling to Harry asking to be his 
> sidekick, because of course he won't.  Nobody's character changes 
> *completely* overnight or even in two years, despite some 
fanfiction 
> suggesting the contrary.  And of course one possibility is that 
> he'll think everything through and decide he's on his father's 
side, 
> or something close to it.  Naturally there are all sorts of 
> potential consequences here, but this being the less interesting 
> possibility, I'm going to leave it at that.


Very, very good points.  I agree that having Draco continue in his 
present mode would be less intriguing -- i.e. less dramatic.  
However, it might also be more realistic and a better literary 
device.

You are right that none of the kids are really "themselves."  But 
most people aren't -- that is, very few people really have a well 
developed sense of self at any age from 16 to 99.  Adolescence is a 
time of great turmoil and change, but I'm not sure most people find 
it a time of overall deepening in self-knowledge.

Why should Draco "think everything through?"  Most people rarely 
think anything basic through thoroughly -- and I include myself in 
that.  And I'm not sure why having his family sundered should lead 
to a great deal of self-exploration and questioning.  It could do 
so, I agree.  But in my experience it is much more common for people 
to cling even tighter to their basic beliefs in time of crisis.

The fact is plenty of people are born and nurtured in evil, and grow 
into horrible ideas and actions with nary a qualm of conscience or 
remorse or questioning.  It is one of the saddest facts about the 
human condition.


> 
<SNIP>
> 
> We already know that Rowling's previously planned a chapter with 
> Draco discussing Death Eaters, that we're seeing more of Narcissa 
in 
> this book, and, significantly, that Draco will indeed have a 
Detour 
> in chapter 6.  Doesn't it seem likely that *something* interesting 
> will happen with this young man?

Not necessarily.  Many would argue the expunged chapter was 
orginally intended to introduce Theo Nott rather than to provide 
much development of Draco.  And one chapter title isn't much 
evidence of anything -- other than that Draco will in fact figure 
into the story in some way.



> 
> Rowling has consistently shown us characters in varying shades of 
> gray.  In fact, the only characters we know much about that 
continue 
> to be one-dimensional are the Slytherins - a viewpoint largely 
left 
> over from Harry's 11-year-old self.  I can't fathom that this 
would 
> continue.  Harry will now be grown up enough to see it; I think it 
> highly likely, given the evidence, that Draco will too.

> 

Rowling certainly has shown us shades of grey in the day to day 
lives of the characters.  However, I'm not so sure that applies to 
the big questions.  Rowling seems to have a very strong sense of 
good and evil, and as the big questions come to dominate life at 
Hogwarts I think we may see that coming through more clearly rather 
than less.  It is possible that the lines will be drawn more 
clearly, and more harshly, than many readers would like.



> So, then, what would the consequences of this change be?  It's 
hard 
> to say without knowing the context of what is to happen at 
Hogwarts, 
> but perhaps his still-nasty self will ask to join the now-in-the-
> open DA.  Perhaps he'll subtly defend Hermione in class one day, 
> much to the Gryffindors' shock.  Perhaps he'll tip Harry off in 
> secret that some danger is imminent.  Who knows.  But he'll show 
us, 
> in some small way, that Slytherin is *not* evil.  That anyone is 
> capable, when making the right choices, of being a good person.
> 
> And what better way to get a bit of insight into the mind of 
> Voldemort - the one and only *true* evil the books have shown us?
> 

I do think we will see a "Good Slytherin."  But I think this will 
play out within the context of JKR's very strong morality, which is 
not what a lot of people would like.

I think the "Harry's viewpoint" argument is deployed a lot more 
often than it should be.  We always talk about Hermione and DD being 
JKR's mouthpieces.  But I suspect that Harry is her eyes.  I think 
often his perceptions are JKR's perceptions.  When it comes to 
Slytherin house, I think a lot of Harry's basic perceptions are 
Rowling's basic perceptions.  That is, much as many readers would 
like it to be otherwise, she really does find the values and 
characteristics of Slytherin house problematic and mostly 
objectionable, and she really does have a mostly disapproving 
attitude toward people who evince those values and characteristics.

Thus, in the case of the "Good Slytherin," I think this will be 
someone who doesn't fit the Slytherin mold all that well.  I doubt 
we will see this as someone who makes Harry realize that he has 
judged the values of Slytherin house unfairly, but rather someone 
who makes Harry realize good people can survive even in a hostile 
environment.  The Good Slytherin will have some Slytherin 
characteristics -- probably that of coming from an old pureblood 
house.  But I doubt very much, despite the wishes of many readers, 
we will see an argument for the value of craftiness or ambition.  I 
just don't sense that JKR has a great deal of respect for those 
traits.

Now, does Draco fit the bill of someone who can do this?  Not at 
all.  In fact, does Draco fit the bill of someone likely to be 
redeemed at all?  It is true that people do change -- but changes 
have to have some seed or foundation on which to build.  The child 
IS the father of the man after all.  What have we seen in this child 
that is evidence he can grow into a good man -- even one of such 
extraordinarily problematic goodness as Snape?  Not much.  He loves 
his parents -- which is a good trait.  But that isn't much to work 
with.

What would be the purpose of changing Draco?  It would show no one 
is born evil, which would be an effective message.  It would show 
the value of redemption.  But JKR already has several characters 
that may serve that purpose, including Percy, Snape, and Pettigrew.

What would be the literary value of Draco not changing?  It would 
provide a needed example of what happens when someone doesn't 
question and isn't redeemed.  Redemption has no meaning except when 
compared with the opposite.  We have Voldemort, of course.  But he 
is an *alien* example, an example of someone who really isn't human 
anymore.  To drive the lesson home we need a fallen person who IS 
human, and who preferably is one of Harry's age-mates.

It would be tragic, in a sense.  But it would also illustrate the 
real fact that you can't save everyone, and that people often tread 
a very easy path to damnation.  

Lupinlore