[HPforGrownups] Re: Being Good and Evil

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 154617


>>> Betsy Hp:
>>> But he can take a look at
>>> the actions of Harry and his friends. And there ain't nothing there
>>> pointing a big neon sign saying "these are the good guys".
>>
>> Amiable Dorsai:

>> If Draco can't see that Harry's friends are the "good guys", it's
>> because he has no conception of the good.
>>
>> Those of us not raised by a corrupt, racist, abusive, slave-holding,
>> boot-licking murderer may have a different view of life.
>
>
>
> Kellie now
> I have to agree with Amiable Dorsai on this.  I am not saying that
> everything Harry and his friends did are right.  Everyone makes mistakes,
> and if Harry had been portrayed as one who didn't make mistakes, I would
> have a problem with that.

Magpie:
But--not speaking for Betsy on this, but you're looking at it from the pov 
of a reader who knows a lot more than Draco *and* is in Harry's pov.   In 
our own lives don't most of us probably make stupid decisions or dislike 
great people--especially if we don't know they're the hero of the story?  A 
lot of AD's examples don't even play the same way from Draco's pov, they're 
objective comparisons of two characters in the books based on things that 
Harry and the reader hold dear, as if that's objective--sometimes things 
Draco wouldn't even know about.

If you really get into Draco's pov his own behavior, while I think still 
it's objectively bad (for instance, I don't think even from his pov he's 
doing something righteous in picking on Hermione), and may be forced to 
change or suffer, I don't think it always comes out as just him being 
intentionally evil and worse than Harry.  Especially with the Voldemort 
part--Voldemort is their guy, the "savior" of the Purebloods quite possibly, 
from Draco's pov.  It's not like he doesn't try to put his money where his 
mouth is on that "I want to help the Heir" thing.  He does wind up helping 
the Heir, and learns first hand maybe that this is actually a bad thing.

I would never say that we as readers can't see a clear difference, but this 
"Those of us not raised by a corrupt, racist, abusive, slave-holding, 
boot-licking murderer may have a different view of life" is the whole point. 
One isn't really an objectively better person just for being smart enough to 
be not raised by corrupt, racist, abusive, slave-holding, boot-licking 
murderers.  There are tons of people like that in the world who grow up into 
corrupt, racist, abusive, slave-holding (heh--like Harry?), boot-licking 
(wonder if any of the heroes seem that way to some?) murderers.  Honestly, 
most people go through life never challenging the morality that they were 
taught growing up--it's rare.  And yet still they often talk about their 
morality as if it's something they earned or figured out themselves, unlike 
those other people who think differently.

So, that's a long way of saying, that I don't know if this is the point 
Betsy is making, but I don't think it's wrong to talk about how the good 
side should work to recruit somebody like Draco, and that stuff they do to 
confirm his bad opinions of them can't always just be dismissed at stuff 
he's too stupid to see as good. Although we don't see it we do hear that 
Voldemort's ideas are pretty prevalent in the WW, as Betsy pointed out as 
well.

-m