Choice and Essentialism (was:Re: Understanding Snape)

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 153910

> Betsy Hp: 
> > Here's the text under discussion:
> > "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more 
> than 
> > our abilities." [SS paperback p.333]
> > 
> > I don't think Dumbledore was trying to say that people are who 
they 
> > are, and we can merely discover their true character by looking at 
> > their choices. 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> I think that is exactly what he says here. I mean, why would not he 
> say then - our choices MAKE us who we are.
> 

a_svirn:
Because he thought that our choices are more important than our 
characters. Example: James might have been a bully, but he chose the 
Light side – that makes him a good guy. Marietta Edgecombe is 
a "wonderful person" according to Cho, yet she made a "a mistake" as 
Cho termed it. That makes her a sneak.