Hogwarts detentions (Was: The Trio's Morality)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 162687

> Carol responds:
> Very good point. Which brings up the whole question of punishment in
> the HP books. Setting aside the Dursleys, who of course don't teach
> Harry anything except to stay out of their way when possible, what,
> exactly, do the Hogwarts detentions accomplish?
<snip>
> 
> What all these detentions have in common is that they're ineffectual.
> None of the students involved is taught any lesson.

Pippin:
Not so. Most of the kids, most of the time, have a healthy respect
for detentions and losing points. In PS/SS, Harry's response
to his detention and the crushing loss of 150 points is "Harry swore 
not to meddle in things that weren't his business from now on."


He keeps to that pretty well, though his definition of what is Harry
Potter's business is more elastic than the school authorities
 would like. The kids learn that they can get away with a fair
amount of mischief: lying, pilfering, hexes and the like, but 
when it comes to lasting damage there's an expectation 
that the culprit will be found and punished. 

 JKR shows us that the system works by having it break down 
under Umbridge, whose rank unfairness and 
er, draconian punishments cause the whole school, not just Harry, 
to lose respect for the rules. The aftermath of this is not pretty. 
Harry doesn't even consider that he might get detention if he's 
caught making toenails grow in HBP, much less that a non-
approved spell might hurt somebody.

But I think the task he was given for punishment shows that 
Snape and McGonagall had a pretty good idea of what he'd been
up to all along. Harry doesn't tell himself so, but we can see that 
he doesn't like the idea of being remembered as the human
equivalent of Peeves. 

I think that's an  appropriate result though Draco fans may
find it inadequate. Harry didn't mean to wound Draco so 
drastically. OTOH, he did mean to go around trying out 
unknown spells, sneaking up on people and hexing them 
for fun, and it was becoming a habit.

We don't see him beat himself up with remorse, but we do
see that his behavior changes. He stops hexing people, or
daydreaming of doing it, and he doesn't long for the day
when it's safe to retrieve the Prince's book. 

I think that between remorse and altered behavior, JKR
prefers altered behavior by far. Lupin has, unfortunately,
become as enured to his guilty feelings as Fred and George
are to detentions -- they're not his favorite thing but they
don't get him to change his ways either.

JKR is concerned with patterns of behavior, IMO. She shows that
punishments and a sense of remorse can keep bad habits from 
forming, but once they've set, punishments and guilty feeelings 
won't be enough to change them. As far as the Twins are 
concerned, we see that detentions and lost points are treated 
like a cost of doing business. They've decided how much they can
afford to lose and that's that.  

There are some people who are supposed to have given up
destructive habits by choice: James, Snape,  Regulus and
Merope. I suspect Rowling means to show us that this *only* 
happens by choice, which is why giving Draco his choice
was so important, though it's too soon to tell whether he's
going to make any lasting change in his ways.

 Umbridge shows what happens when the authorities
resort to cruel and unusual punishment instead: respect 
for the law as a whole breaks down and 
things only get worse. As Star Wars puts it, the more she 
tightens her grip,  the more slips through her fingers.

All the posts about the code of the playground and rules
of engagement for bullies are fascinating, but I can't apply them
to things like the train scene because the kids aren't obeying any
code, they're just reacting in what JKR calls an animal way. 
There's no thought or decision to obey a code or to break it.
 
JKR shows the limitations of this kind of thing. It may work as a last
resort, but Harry's overkill with Draco and ineffectual response
to the Inferi in HBP show that as Harry's power grows, his choices 
are growing also. His ability to choose wisely now depends on gaining
enough self-control to choose at all, IMO.

JKR often leaves it debatable for a while whether her
protagonists' behavior is meant to be  a good example or a 
cautionary tale. That's what keeps the books from being preachy, 
much to the disgust of those who prefer preaching to seeing their
particular view up for debate.

I trust that when she says these are moral books, she means
that her views of what is moral and why will come through clear 
enough in the  end. 

Pippin