sex/VanishingCabinet/SoulsEtc/Badger/Ch.2/ThinAir/Choices/Stag/deadHouseElves

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 139983

Catlady:
> Did JKR say that about 'our choices determine who we are' in an
> interview? As Cathy Drolet has posted, Dumbledore said 'show', not
> 'determine', as in the following ancient and nearly perfect post:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/23598

Aberforth's goat: 
> Not so fast! The CoS passage actually has some of the most
> "Calvinistic" passages in the canon. In fact, it was that passage 
> that got me thinking about this. <snip COS quote> So: Harry's
> choices *reveal* something--they peel the layers off the
> onion--they show us the person he actually is. His true identity, his
> soul, his platonic essence. And that person is, fundamentally, a
> Gryffindor. He may not even have known it, but there's a white hat in
> his soul and when it comes to a crisis, he'll wear it.

Jen: I'm not trying to discount the essence of Calvinism in the story, 
the fact that JKR said the sorting hat is never wrong probably gives 
even more credit to the idea: At the core, each person by age 11 is a 
preponderance of certain traits, revealing an identity most closely 
matching one of the four founder's houses.

If JKR's going with a *pure* Calvinist view, the actions of her 
characters mean nothing as she's already pre-ordained their core 
essence by age 11.  Peter is a Gryffindor at heart and thus will be 
revealed as a Gryffindor in the end. His failure of will and indirect 
destruction of the Potter family means nothing because he is 
predestined to be a white hat in the end. Draco lowering his wand and 
Snape choosing to be on Dumbledore's side for even awhile (if he did 
indeed choose that) mean nothing becuase both are fated to be revealed 
as evil, along with most of the other Slytherins in the end. Harry is 
revealed as a Gryffindor early on and continues to make the choice to 
be brave-at-heart and good, like his mom, dad, & Dumbledore. Regulus 
may have chosen to destroy the Horcrux in an act of bravery, but this 
did not change his pre-destined course as a DE and evil at his core.

She muddies the Calvinistic waters though, in GOF: "You place too much 
importance, and you always have done, on the so-called purity of 
blood! You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, 
but what they grow to be! Your dementor has just destroyed the last 
remaining member of a pure-blood family as old as any--and see what 
that man chose to make of his life!" (chap. 36, p. 708, Scholastic).

But JKR's choosing to hinge a huge theme of her story on the idea that 
blood content means nothing for who a person chooses to become. A 
Muggleborn can be the best witch of her age just as a pure-blood can 
act like Barty Crouch, Jr. This also means a pure-blood like Sirius 
can choose to go against his family's pure-blood doctrine, and a half-
blood like Riddle can choose to become the darkest wizard ever known. 

I'm not sure she can have it both ways without having losing one of 
her major themes in the end.

Jen