Ending WAS : Compassionate hero

[julie]

No: HPFGUIDX 176019


> 
> Alla:
> 
> I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine, who never goes 
> to Internet to read HP discussions, but is just obsessed as I am. 
> Oh, and I remember somebody mentioning "casual reader" recently ( 
> not you), so he is far from casual reader, he is let's put it this 
> way, very sophisticated reader. I think I mentioned his opinions 
> here once.
> 
> I was discussing DH with him and mentioned Slytherin issue and  
told 
> him that while it does not majorly bother me, it is strange that 
one 
> quarter of the school is allowed to go to Slytherin.
> 
> He looked at me as if I am crazy ( he does have a child by the way 
> to foresee questions, she is twelve now). He was like, are you 
> seriously telling me that you think that by the age of eleven you 
do 
> not find the character of the child to be completely formed? He was 
> like – well, I do and no, I do not find it strange that Sorting hat 
> seems to know who is who at the age of eleven. After all, it is not 
> like school does that, Hat is magical, it knows.
> 
> He was also saying that sure, change is possible later on, but he 
is 
> perfectly okay with  looking in the heart of the child and knowing 
> where such child belongs at eleven years old.
> 

Julie:
I do see where your friend is coming from. It's just to me
it a very depressing place. I would agree at age eleven a
child's personality is fairly well formed (much of it, as
in temperament, is genetic and present from birth). I'd
also agree that childhood is when a person's belief system
and moral system is most strongly influenced by his/her
environment--family, neighborhood, school, culture, society.
So by the time a child comes to Hogwarts he/she has already
internalized certain belief systems/moral systems, a sense
of self-worth and self-esteem (or lack thereof), and so on. 

So what do you do when the child who has internalized very
negative and prejudicial beliefs, and a lax moral system, is
ready to enter a boarding school? A boarding school, which 
by its definition will be home throughout his later childhood
and teenage years, where he will continue to learn from the
teachers, students, and boarding school "society" around him,
whether that learning means further cementing those negative
beliefs and lax morals, or whether that learning means a lot
of exposure to more postive beliefs and tolerance in hopes
that the child will see another option and perhaps begin to
change his/her views sooner rather than later--or never.
(And if change is possible *later on*, why on earth isn't
it possible--in fact very much preferable--starting NOW?)

Well, if you live in the WW, apparently you sort the child
in with the other bad kids, toss them all together in the
dungeon (which at least you should LOCK so the riff raff
can't infect anyone else), and let them all fester and
incite each other into further prejudicial and moral
bankruptcy, and then after a few years release them all 
into society. (And this is why I have so little sympathy
for the WW at large, because they are reaping *exactly*
what they sow, and richly deserving it--and that includes
all the "good" ones like the Weasleys who just accept the
system the way it is.)

If you applied this philosophy of writing off children
by age eleven and assuming there's no point in trying to
influence them or change them, then the real world would
be a very scary place. (Oh, wait...we do, and it is!--
though on occasion there are those who don't write them
off, as with the true story of The Freedom Diaries...)

Julie, who didn't want JKR to blatantly moralize against
writing off certain undesirable segments of society, but
did hope if she is against it, this would be illustrated
more clearly in her writing.