Yo-Yo, Thimble, Mouth-organ

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 152735

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tonks" <tonks_op at ...> wrote:
>
> Well to get us off of our usual topic of "you know who", lets talk 
> about  LV. When DD visited him in the orphanage Tom had taken 
these 
> things and was hording them. Does anyone have any ideas what these 
> objects might mean?  Why did Tom take these particular objects? Do 
you 
> think that they have any special significance to the plot?  Why 
did JKR 
> choice these objects.  You all know I love the symbolism of things 
in 
> the books, any of that in these?
> 
> I guess it could just be that those objects were special to the 
child 
> that Tom took it from and as such he wanted to make them suffer.  
I 
> wonder if there is more to it than that.  I wonder if they 
represent 
> anything to him?  DD tells Harry that LV likes to collect things 
> (reminds you of Slughorn). 
> 
> Thoughts anyone? Let's go into the depth of LV mind and of Tom 
Riddle's 
> mind as a child. What will we find there? 


Magpie:
I can't believe I'm going to post about Voldemort because we have 
something in common, but Dumbledore does call him "magpie-like" for 
a reason.  That one moment in canon JKR totally got me to love Tom 
Riddle.:-)

It's hard to explain exactly why objects have a meaning to you if 
you're this type of person but yes, they definitely do.  (Not that 
my own experience or what I know of other "magpies" necessarily 
applies to Tom Riddle--only JKR could answer that for sure, but it 
seems like it does.)  One doesn't have to be a thief or anything, of 
course.  Sometimes it's just a case of collecting things or buying 
souvenirs.  But basically the objects are totems for memory.  You 
don't want them because they mean something to someone else but 
because they mean something to you, something you may or may not be 
able to explain.  Magpies traditionally are thought to like things 
that are "shiny" (all corvids do) but for people "shiny" can be sort 
of a metaphor for some kind of inner attractive shine.  It doesn't 
seem like Tom gets pleasure out of playing with the yo-yo or the 
mouth organ.  Usually with this sort of thing the item brings 
pleasure just in itself.  It's to be taken out when you want to look 
at it, touch it and "feel" whatever it means, be it a memory or a 
symbol of something that's connected to yourself.  It's kind of the 
opposite feeling from people who will insist that objects don't mean 
anything, only people do.  Only in this case the object is often a 
symbol of things more important--the object itself doesn't have to 
have any real value to anyone else.  Often such objects aren't very 
valuable objectively.

So I actually don't think, given Tom's horcruxes, that he takes 
things from other children to cause them to suffer, particularly not 
due to a loss of something to do with a loved one, since Tom doesn't 
have loved ones himself.  I would think he couldn't care less 
whether they're suffering or not. My guess is he might even feel 
more like the objects are his, not theirs, because they "call" to 
him in some way that makes them more than a toy or a harmonica. (Oh 
my god, I'm now totally remembering something I *did* steal when I 
was probably around 5 years old where I totally felt this way and 
still do because of course I still have it.)  

The horcruxes are a great example of this.  They symbolize Hogwarts 
and the founders, which he himself wants to possess, make part of 
himself/become part of himself.  He literally then makes them a 
holder of a piece of his own soul.

-m