Back to Slytherin House - Choosing

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 176167

> lizzyben:
> Because he's doing what might be called evil things, and not even
> recognizing it as such. (Crucios, double-crosses, etc.) The novel
> doesn't even recognize it as such. Instead, there's an assumption
> that anything Harry does is intrinsically good & right. And that 
> makes sense if you see it more as that Harry has already been 
> sorted among the Elect& Good, and so his actions will always be 
> good, even if those same actions would be wrong if a different
> person did it. 

Jen:  This is a false construct if the story wasn't primarily about 
Harry's struggle within himself to choose to go down the path of good 
or the path of evil.  It presumes JKR was supposed to give weight to 
moments that weren't crucial to the particular conflict Harry was 
facing.  It's like saying 'this is what the story should be about so 
she didn't do it right' when in fact that wasn't what the story was 
about.  That's not to say some choices Harry (JKR) made shouldn't be 
questioned or critiqued in their own right, but critiquing them for 
not being part of a story that doesn't exist...it's a circular logic 
to me.  

The story *is* in part about the connection between Harry and 
Voldemort and how Harry had the possibility within himself, 
literally, to become Voldemort if he chose to do that - he can open 
the chamber with Parseltoungue; he can learn the secrets of 
Voldemort's power through the mind-link; he can unite the Hallows and 
defeat death if he beats LV to the Elder wand.  At each juncture 
Harry rejects what Voldemort embraces because he's protected by love 
and surrounded by people who are helping him along his journey, from 
one of the smartest and most powerful wizards, to 'probably the 
bravest man' to the most lowly of the WW represented by the enslaved 
House Elves.  

I get it about not liking the story presented, if it wasn't 
meaningful or whatever.  I don't understand creating a new story 
based on a criteria that isn't present, especially with completed 
canon. 

lizzyben: 
> Life vs. Death, I don't see as a big crisis for Harry. DD has
> trained Harry to be willing to sacrifice himself since SS at least.
> And Harry has always been somewhat drawn to death - the Dementors, 
> the Veil, the Resurrection Stone, etc. What w/his loved ones 
> cheering him one, and the grief he was in, it was almost an easy 
> choice for him to make. 

Jen: So chapter 34 didn't happen basically?  The whole point was that 
Harry thought he knew how to die all along because he continually put 
himself in harm's way with his saving people thing (including saving 
himself), but when it actually came to voluntarily dying, "all those 
times he'd thought that it was about to happen and escaped, he had 
never really thought of the thing itself..."  

Sure he's surrounded by death his whole life, much of it at the hands 
of Voldemort and Bellatrix, and he's choosing to go out in the forest 
to them and offer his life without fighting back, refusing to do what 
comes naturally to him in other words - fight for life instead of 
succumbing to death.  He wants his family *back*, he doesn't want to 
die to be with them except at the crucial moment when Voldemort is 
possessing him.  His wish to die and be with Sirius is a defining 
moment for why Harry didn't choose the path Voldemort did.

> lizzyben: 
> Well, I'm saying that refusing power is a virtue, and desiring power
> is a sin - therefore, the Slytherin qualities of ambition, using any
> means to reach their goals, etc. are sins, evil qualities. 

> So, when the Sorting Hat promises Harry "greatness" if he goes to
> Slytherin, IMO JKR is representing that as Harry's temptation to 
> evil.  Once he rejects power in that instance, Harry is sorted into
> Goodness, and remains there. 

Jen:  Yet apparently he wasn't meant to be tempted by evil but 
protected by love.  He doesn't want to be sorted into the same house 
as a boy who reminds him of the guy who bullied him his whole life or 
the man who murdered his parents.  Harry rejected Slytherin before he 
ever put the hat on his head or heard a Sorting song talking about 
qualities of Slytherin. 

lizzyben:
> This is why only Harry could become the master of Elder Wand, and 
> give up the wand. DD also praises Harry for not being tempted by 
> power. This is about Harry as the Elect, more than a Gryffindor-
> elect thing. Because even though Gryffindors are pretty high up, it
> seems like Harry is the most Elect of all - maybe it's his ability 
> to reject power that makes him so special? (According to JKR). 

Jen: He *is* tempted by power (unlike the temptation to evil that 
never happened) when he wants to collect the Hallows instead of 
destroying the Horcruxes.  It takes a traumatic loss and his 
connection back to the Dumbledore, the realization that the Elder 
wand is one thing he can seek but can't find, for Harry to reject his 
quest for power.  Love again. 

> lizzyben: 
> Because I never thought about Harry's own Sorting as being a 
> predestined choice between good & evil, but that seems like a better
> interpretation given how JKR characterizes the Houses. At eleven,
> Harry had the choice between love (Gryffindor) or power 
> (Slytherin) - and chose love. 

Jen:  Gryffindor, the house of love - that's not part of the story.