The essence of James (Was: Choice and Essentialism

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 153957

Magpie wrote:
> <snip> I think James' choice to be on the good side is shown to be
an important part of who he was--he hated Dark Magic even as he
bullied. <snip>

Carol responds:
Let me first say that I thoroughly enjoyed your clever essay on
essentialism in the HP books even though my own view of the subject is
rather different. (see upthread.)

But I want to look at this statement on James, whom we don't really
know. All we have is one scene in which he does not appear to
advantage. We do see his teasing affection for Lupin, his attraction
to Lily, and  his friendship with Sirius Black, but we also see his
arrogance and egotism, his tolerance for or encouragement of PP's
slobbering adulation, his willingness to amuse the equally arrogant
Sirius Black by attacking someone they both dislike two-on-one and
without provocation, and his habit of hexing people in the hallways
simply because they annoy him.

In contrast to this less than attractive picture, we have his
apparently daring rescue of Severus from werewof!Remus (in which he
contrasts favorably to the instigator of the incident, Sirius),
decision to join the Order, his marriage to Lily, and his
unquestionably heroic death protecting, or trying to protect, his wife
and child.

At school, we have his frequent detentions contrasted with his
appointment as Head Boy. The cleverness he showed in becoming an
Animagus and his contributions to the Marauder's Map is balanced by
his serious lack of judgment and responsibility (shared by all the
Marauders) in endangering the people of Hogsmeade by running with a
werewolf. After he left Hogwarts, we have his marked preference for
Sirius Black over his other friends, his rejection of DD's offer to be
Secret Keeper, his misplaced (and ultimately fatal) trust in PP.

We have admittedly biased statements from Snape on the one hand and
Lupin/Black/McGonagall on the other. Snape sees only his arrogance and
bullying (and also the ultimate indignity, saving his life); the
others see only James's charm and cleverness. (McGonagall as his HOH
and Transfiguration teacher may exaggerate his abilities in other
courses. Slughorn says nothing of his having an aptitude for Potions,
as we know Severus did, and I very much doubt that James's facile
answers in DADA reflected the same depth of knowledge as Severus's
minutely detailed ones. 

James is almost entirely an off-the-page character, but I don't think
we can easily sum up his "essence," and if we try, we're as likely to
be wrong as both Snape and McGonagall because we'll oversimplify him.
I *do* think that he changed, and that the catalyst of that change was
the so-called Prank, in which he finally understood the difference
between reckless adventure and placing others in mortal peril.

But, and I'm finally getting to my reason for writing this post, I'm
wondering why everyone seems to take for granted James's dislike for
the Dark Arts. Our source, our only source, for that remark, is Sirius
Black, himself a fierce opponent of the Dark Arts because of his
family background. Yes, James joined the Order of the Phoenix after he
left Hogwarts, but so did Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin, Lily, Sturgis
Podmore (two years their senior), and many others whose sentiments on
the Dark Arts we have not heard expressed. It appears to be possible
to oppose Voldemort for other reasons than opposition to the Dark Arts
in themselves, at least in the case of Regulus Black and DDM!Snape. I
doubt that Mundungus Fletcher has any such agenda. Loyalty to
Dumbledore may be another reason for opposing LV, or opposition to
murder and terror tactics, or to his ostensible pureblood agenda.
James's motive for joining the Order could be any or all of these.

Sirius Black had very real reasons for opposing the Dark Arts from an
early age. He hated his family and his horrible house. Visiting
James's family, purebloods who weren't practitioners of the Dark Arts
or advocates of pureblood supremacy, would certainly have reinforced
his views. He would have wanted to be like James but, being handsome
and arrogant and bred a Black (notice his resemblance to Bellatrix in
both appearance and demeanor, even to the loss of good looks through
Azkaban), would never have said so (IMO).

But James, the indulged only son of rich older parents, arrogant and
talented and egotistical, seems (in the Pensieve scene) not to have
any concerns beyond getting Lily Evans to date him, tormenting Severus
Snape "because he exists," and showing off for anyone who will admire
his reflexes or windswept hair. The one scene in which we see him
gives no indication of any particular opposition to the Dark Arts or
even a predilection for DADA (unlike Severus Snape, who obviously
takes the subject seriously and knows a great deal about it). He and
his friends joke about the werewolf question and give PP a hard time
for not knowing two of the five distinguishing points of a werewolf;
they shrug off the exam as a piece of cake; but for all we know, James
 (and Sirius) would be just as satisfied with an A or an E as an O. An
OWL is an OWL. We don't even have any indication of their career
plans. Did they intend to be Aurors or live off their family fortunes?

I really see no evidence anywhere other than Sirius Black's statement
that James "always" hated the Dark Arts, nor does Severus's
(purported) interest in the subject seem to be James's reason for
hating him from their first encounter. Maybe he did, but we're just
not presented with the evidence. Or maybe Black is projecting his own
feelings onto James, as he projects his subjectively filtered memories
of James onto Harry.

James, for all his being an off-screen minor character seen through
the eyes of others (and unfortunately re-idealized by Harry after
Sirius Black's death because of his determination to hate Snape),
turns out to be a rather complex character. Maybe someone can boil him
down to his essence, but that essence does not appear, at least to me,
to be his opposition to the Dark Arts.

Carol, wondering why her posts always turn into tomes