Being Good and Evil

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 154425

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "phoenixgod2000" <jmrazo at ...> wrote:
>
>
> > Betsy Hp:
>
> >
> > It's interesting though, because I think Draco has the harder path
> > to walk and so may end up wiser than Harry. After all, Harry hasn't
> > had to question his definitions of good and evil. All of his
> > friends are good and all of his foes are evil. It's been easy for
> > him. While Draco is having to question his assumptions, Harry seems
> > quite safe in keeping his.

Phoenixgod2000:
> Or you could look at it as Draco is taking longer to reach a stage of
> wisdom that harry obtained a long time ago. Of the two of them, I
> would say that Harry has had the 'easier' route because his judgement
> of friends and enemies has been better than Draco's (lets just compare
> Ron/Hermione with Crabbe/Goyle to test that theory), and when he is
> wrong he shifts gears pretty quickly. Draco has stuck to wrong
> assumptions for quite a long time. if he is changing then he's doing it
> at a glacial pace.

Geoff:
Draco is only changing slowly because, like a glacier, he is moving through
the same sort of territory all the time. Possibly until the imprisonment of
Lucius at the end of OOTP, he has never suffered major shocks or changes
to his life style and, hence, his view of life.

Harry, on the other hand, is a river in an earthquake zone. He has had to
contend with a whole series of major shifts in his life and his ideas over
a period of six years up to the end of HBP. His entire world view has been
turned upside-down; whether you put it down to "sheer dumb luck", the
help of friends or innate intuition, he has faced up to Voldemort four
times since he learned he was a wizard and lived which has certainly
honed his survival skills somewhat.