Does JKR want us to hate Draco? (was: Re: Admonishing Snape)

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 129644

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03"
<horridporrid03 at y...> wrote:
> >>Nora:
> <snip>
> >...[This is why present-day Draco doesn't look like he's heading in
> >  a good direction; she doesn't like him, although she made him, 
> > because of what he is and that certainly includes his 
> > motivations.]<
> <snip>

 
> Betsy:
> Okay, I'll bite. :)  How do we, the readers, *know* that JKR doesn't 
> like Draco?  I'm honestly curious about this because Draco has such
> a large fan base ... I've often seen those who like Draco or Snape 
> or Slytherin House for that matter speak of the unfairness of JKR 
> and how close minded she is  when it comes to all those of House 
> Slytherin.  ...
> 
> Because when JKR *does* want you to hate a character, I mean really 
> despise someone, she doesn't seem to have a problem accomplishing 
> her goal.  
> 

bboyminn:

I'm sure JKR like many readers loves Draco (and Snape) as a character,
but not so much as a person. True, Draco does have a large fan base of
admirers and defenders, but I'll get to that aspect later.

First, I don't think we as readers are meant so much to hate Draco as
we are meant to recognise him. I think if JKR had written Draco with
the conscious intent that we hate him, with the clear unwavering
intent that we see him as a bad guy, it would have been a little too
obvious and a little too preachy. Instead, she has made Draco simply
another flawed human being. 

So, I think much like all her characters, I think we are meant to
react to Draco on a deeper less obvious level. Let's face it, every
kind knows or at lead recognises Draco, he went to our school, he
worked at our office, we've seen him on the 6 o'clock news. We are
meant to see him for what he is, and to understand what that means,
and to carry that realization out into our real lives. Just as
recognising Harry on a deeper level can lead us to manifest courage in
our own lives, recognising Draco on that same level can lead us to
fight bullying, intimidation, and tyranny in real life.  I think it is
this deep familiarity with people like Draco that draws all of us to
him as a character, and many of us to him as a person.

Despite Draco's limited apparent depth as a character, there is a lot
of what I will call 'back-depth'. Draco is a product of his
environment. He grew up in a position of wealth, superiority and
priviledge; thoroughly convinced that his pure-blood make him near
royalty (much like the Black family's self-view). Also, that wealth
and priviledge have help isolate Draco from the realities of life.

Draco may have the social breeding to know how to act in public, but
because of his sense of superiority, this social courtesy is nothing
more than an act, there is little or no real respect or consideration
behind it.

Because of his somewhat isolated up bringing, his sense of
superiority, and his false courtesy, he is actually somewhat
disfunctional. Normally, Draco's position of wealth, power, and status
 get him what ever he wants. But on a level playing field, Draco is
somewhat lost when it comes to functioning effectively with other people.

Take his meeting Harry on the train, certainly Harry would have shaken
Draco's hand out of nothing more than courtesy. Harry, given his
volatile upbring, is very good at pacifying situations; it's a defense
mechanism. So again, Harry would have shaken Draco's hand for no other
reason than not wanting the situation to escallate; not wanting to
make waves. 

However, Draco, with his slightly disfunctional social skills, couched
that handshake in a framework that make it impossible for Harry to do
so. To shake Draco's hand would have been to insult Harry's first ever
friend, Ron, and to Harry, a friend is an extremely precious
commodity. So, Draco himself created a situation in which Harry had to
reject him. Rejection is something that Draco is not used to; what
Draco wants, Draco gets.

We could apply that same thought process to Dudley. There are many
people who have sympathy for Dudley, but since Dudley is not 'cute' by
conventional standard, he has far fewer fans. Also, we have seen more
of Dudley's unredeemable actions. None the less, many people here and
even JKR have acknowledged, within a certain context, that Dudley too
is a product of his upbringing, and have gone as far as saying he is
abused (again within a limited context). 

So, I don't think we are meant to like Draco, but we are meant to see
his actions for what they are, and to look behind the surface and see
how and why Draco can be who and what he is. So, we dislike Draco for
his actions, but at the same time, can see who and what made Draco how
 he is, and in that, have some element of sympathy for him. 

Plus, by not giving Draco's character any real depth on the page, JKR
has left an element of ambiguity in his character. So far Draco's
action have been very 'schoolboy'. He bullied, intimidated, annoyed,
and irritated, but he has yet to do anything truly evil. That leaves
open the possbility for him to see the error of his ways. 

To some extent, with regard to Voldemort, Draco is living in that same
social isolation that he faces in other aspects of his life. He knows
the rhetoric, and the right words and phrases that re-enforce his own
superiority, but he doesn't truly understand what it means to be a
Death Eater. I think if there is a turning point for Draco, it will be
in facing the reality of what it means to serve Voldemort; the bowing
and scraping, the absolute servility. In his own mind, I think Draco
see himself as the one who is bowed to, not the one who does the
bowing. Then at some point, Draco will have to face, the cold
heartless torture and murder that are standard Death Eater fair. I
think that's when Draco will either be redeemed or fall irrevocably to
the dark side.


> Betsy continues:
>
> If Draco is meant to be so completely repulsive, if Slytherins are 
> supposed to be so drenched in evil why are so many readers missing 
> the cues?  Why do they consistently find evidence of something more, 
> evidence of possible goodness?  Has JKR done such a poor job writing 
> her villians?  If she really does dislike Draco, why can't JKR, with 
> her bully pulpit, get everyone else to dislike him too?
> 
> Betsy, 

bboyminn:

How can people 'love' Draco? Simple, 'ladies love outlaws like babies
love stray dogs, and ladies take to outlaws like bankers take to
gold', and that's how life is. Look at your own high school days, who
got the glory, who got the girls? Was it the captain of the chess
team, or the captain of the football team? Was it the nerds or the bad
boy out behind the gym smoking and toking and generally raising hell.
Sorry, but the brainiac never gets the girl, it's always the bad boy.
Though later in life when the brainiac is a millionaire, and the bad
boy is an abusive alcoholic, the 'ladies' see things a little
differently. 

As far as Slytherin House in general, I'm very much a believer in 'the
Good Slytherin'. We must remember that we have only seen a small few
Slytherins, and those Slytherin's are Draco's friends. Because we see
the world through Harry's eyes, we only see the Slytherins that get
'in his face' and give him trouble. Remember the stringy (or was it
'weedy') Slytherin in Magical Creatures class who could see the
Thestrals? Harry has been in class with him for 5 years and didn't
know his name. How can that be? Simple, that Slytherin is not one of
Draco's gang and has never given Harry any grief. 

I simply refuse to believe that all Slytherins are uniformly evil. I
strongly suspect that a majority of Slytherins are simply ambitious
kids who want to keep their heads down, learn their lessons, leave
school, and become sucessful. If they have any brains at all that
aren't warped by hollow meaningless rhetoric, then they have to see
that Voldemort is not good for business. He is not the path to wealth
except for a very small group of insiders. He is doom to the economics
of a very vast majority of people.

Just a few thoughts.

Steve.bboyminn