Moral messages

[cat_kind]

No: HPFGUIDX 128737

> catkind earlier: 
> > In a slightly tongue-in-cheek attempt to discern moral messages in 
> > the HP books, I come up with the following:
> > Loyalty is good.
> > Love is good.
> > Prejudice is bad.
> > Torturing people is bad.
> > (possible exceptions made depending on identity of victim)
> > Killing people is bad.
> > (possible exceptions made depending on identity of victim)
> > Slavery might be bad or not, depending on both slave and master.
> > Fun is good.
> > 
> > This really isn't a very impressive list is it? I must have missed
> > something. I did honestly try.
> >  
> Valky:
> Well I suppose you did try but I think that the meaning of the word
> moral isn't really served justice by that list. Sure it ticks the
> boxes of basic meaning, but it has a tone of sarcasm that seems to be
> directed not at the HP books but at the very notion of morality. 
> Not that it is so big a thing if that is how you feel then that is
> your choice, and then I might also be reading it all wrong and I am
> sorry if I did that.
> 
> Anyhow, how about a list of my own?
> 
> Moral messages in Harry Potter:
> 
> Bad is not confined to people with deadly weapons and criminal records.
> Good is not confined to people without them.
> Truth and honesty are powerful.
> When someone is wise it doesn't mean they have all the answers, more
> often than not they have the most questions.
> Kindness can change somebody's life. 
> We all make choices.

catkind: I am not meaning to be sarcastic about the idea of morality.
 But I think morality is a subjective thing.  Different people have
different ideas of what is good or bad.  I'm trying to pin down the
moral points of view I think are expressed by the HP books, not to
find morals in HP that agree with my own world view.

Your list seems to me to be more observations on life than what I
understand by morals.  They are indeed good observations on life, if
in some cases somewhat obvious, and I personally agree with them. I
understand morals as being ideas of what is right and wrong, good and
bad. What would the Ten Commandments of the Potterverse be? Perhaps I
misunderstand. 

Hmm. Regarding your first two points, of course everyone in the
wizarding world has a deadly weapon.  So we have Snape, who may be
good or bad but is presumed to be on our side.  I'd say the question
of his "goodness" is as yet undecided, to judge by the discussions
here. We have Sirius, who may have a criminal record but only due to a
miscarriage of justice. We have Umbridge who is on the right side of
the law but bad - but actually it turns out she is not on the right
side of the law, having illegally sent in dementors, and being
prepared to illegally use an unforgiveable curse on a student.  Aside
from these, it's pretty much criminal records and Dursleys bad, others
good.  Though by OotP we start to get a bit of good people doing
acknowledgedly bad things. 

Truth and honesty are powerful? I don't see that message very clearly
in the books. Our heroes are of necessity very secretive about a lot
of things. DD is secretive about lots of things. Harry's father died
because a secret was betrayed.  Wait - do you mean powerful or good? A
lot of the nasty things Draco says are more or less true, and I guess
they do have some power to harm. Harry's standing up and truth-telling
to Umbridge is of course to be applauded. Can I add repression is bad
to my list then? 

Do you mean DD with someone being wise? He seems to have more answers
than questions to me, will have to think more on that one.

Kindness.  Hmm.  Hagrid is kind to Harry, and that definitely improves
his life a lot. So as a moral, it is good to be kind to people you
meet? That would work.  Sirius wasn't kind to Kreacher, and suffered
for it.  Harry was (debatably) kind to Pettigrew, and it may come to
be to his advantage. 

We all make choices is kind of a truism, isn't it? DD tells Harry that
it's his choices that are important.  On the other hand, it isn't
Harry's choice to be a wizard. Abilities are also important. I'd say
the moral questions are more about which is the correct choice to make
in a given situation. 

I'm thinking aloud.  Hope I haven't said anything too obviously stupid.

catkind (NOT being sarcastic. I try to give it big neon signs when I'm
being sarcastic, as my sarcasm often doesn't translate well in print
or over the atlantic.)