Being Good and Evil

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 154623

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" <dumbledore11214 at ...> 
wrote:

> > 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.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Um, not quite. I just don't buy the argument ( not necessarily 
> yours) that seems to absolve Draco from all personal responsibility 
> BECAUSE his parents are so bad.
> 
> IMO everybody first and foremost learns their morality, their views 
> from their parents and if Draco would have been raised in vacuum and 
> have not encountered ANYBODY but his parents and friends, then I 
> would have probably understood that argument.

Geoff:
But I suspect that Draco /was/ raised in a vacuum until he was eleven.

I doubt very much whether he had any contact with non-Voldemort 
supporters until he came to Hogwarts. As you say, we all learn our 
morality, our views of the world and attitudes from family and friends 
when we are young. I think it was the Jesuits who said something 
along the lines of 'give us a child until he is six and then we reckon 
he's sorted' - a very loose paraphrase!!.

I think that we all enter our teenage years seeing eveything in black 
and white - I think that is true of Harry for example - and it is only 
as we develop as young adults that we see that the world contains  
a spectrum of greys as well.

I agree that Draco is a rather nasty little boy with an inflated ego 
when we first meet him but his ego has obviously received a number 
of jolts from Harry's ability to better him from time to time and 
certainly the Tower chapter in HBP shows that he is having an 
internal conflict with himself.

I've often said that, speaking from a Christian point of view, Draco 
is not irredeemable. There are plenty of real world examples of
people who dramatically changed their view of life. I suspect that 
Draco could never reach a position of friendship with Harry but 
could see that the "light" side of magic is the better way forward.

I certainly wouldn't write him off, until I see what JKR has is store 
for him.