Harry's celebrity status and Draco's view of such and Harry's view of Draco

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 146037

Carol:
<HUGE SNIP>

> Since so few people know how dangerous Harry's life is, I don't 
think
> it's unreasonable to imagine that certain people, perhaps including
> Draco, do envy his celebrity status. Draco in CoS, IIRC, complains 
to
> his father that Potter is famous because of a stupid scar. In fact,
> he's famous because he survived an AK at Godric's Hollow. But 
there's
> no indication in the WW at large that Voldemort will return or that
> Harry will have to fight him.


Alla:

Absolutely, it IS not unreasonable to imagine that certain people, 
perhaps including Draco envy it. What I was initially trying to argue 
though and it is I guess got lost eventually was to argue against 
Magpie's point that Draco's POV of Harry and Harry's POV of Draco are 
equally wrong. I remain convinced that Draco's POV of Harry is MUCH 
more wrong that Harry's view of Draco. Let me try it again and if I 
start rambling, please feel free to put me back on track by asking 
questions.

Neither Draco nor Harry know EVERYTHING about each other, I don't 
dispute that, BUT whatever part of Draco's personality ( 1/4, 1/8 or 
1/2 - arbitrary numbers) Harry sees, he IMO judges absolutely spot 
on - as "Draco is a pureblooded bigot" and therefore of the wrong 
sort.

It is true, that "pureblooded bigot" may not be all what Draco is 
about, BUT why would Harry be interested at ALL to learn more about 
Draco when he sees Draco's hateful behavior towards Hermione, if 
nothing else? Draco may be a loving son, an animal lover and overall 
a fluffy bunny underneath all that hatefulness, but why should Harry 
CARE about all that if all he sees is hatefulness?
I mentioned in the past that my RL analogy of "pureblood bigotry" is 
anti-Semitism. I realize that there are many different 
interpretations  and RL analogies for this. Some people will 
associate it with racism, some people argue that the best analogy is 
not racial at all, but social elitism, it is different interpretation 
for everybody. Personally, I don't see better analogy than anti-
Semitism. When Draco spats 'Mudblood" at Hermione and I am sure I 
mentioned it on the list in the past, I can so easily substitute it 
with famous derogatory name for many soviet Jews. SO, if I am about 
to get acquainted with the person for one reason or another and I 
will learn that this person thinks of Jews as "second sort people", I 
know that I will NOT have any desire to learn ANYTHING else about 
this person. Why? Because in my mind no matter how wonderful such 
person is in general, this person will be first and foremost " the 
person of anti-Semitic vies" and if I am given any choice in the 
matter, I would certainly not want to have anything in common with 
this person.

So, as long as Draco remains who he is I totally see why Harry will 
not be willing to look deeper into who Draco is all together. When 
Harry sees that Draco may begin to change his views  and who knows 
maybe despite my pessimism he already started doing it after HBP, 
then I can see that Harry will reevaluate.

Harry's judgment of Draco may not be complete, that I have no problem 
with, but I think he judges what he sees well.


Right, now to Draco's view of Harry and that will bring us to your 
point, Carol. You ARE correct not too many people know how dangerous 
Harry's life is and may envy him before HBP. although everybody knows 
that his parents died, so I still don't see that too many people 
would envy that, BUT I totally see your point well.... to the point.

WE the readers know how dangerous Harry's life is and it is NOT just 
Harry's POV, it is a fact, isn't it? Almost every year somebody tries 
to kill him and in HBP well everybody knows that. We know that Harry 
almost always tries to escape death. SO,  the fact that Draco does 
not know what Harry's life is really about, IMO does not make him 
right or justified in envying Harry at all. I doubt that if Draco 
knew that Harry could be killed at any given moment ( we know that 
final confrontation will occur at the end of book 7, Harry does not, 
so he can expect it at any time, IMO), he would envy Harry much.

JMO,

Alla hoping that she was clear enough.