Danger in designating an "Other" / Slytherins / DH as Christian Allegory

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 174021

Betsy Hp:
> Yes, because it was all the Slytherin children who had Death Eater 
parents. Because Slytherins have lesser souls and are more easily 
corrupted by evil. The Slytherin flag was not hanging in the Room of 
Requirement. That tells everything we need to know right there.

Ceridwen:
This gives a whole rounded meaning to Snape's comment to Bellatrix 
that DD didn't give him the DADA position because he was afraid it 
would tempt him back to the Dark Arts.  Everyone expects Slytherins 
to be tempted.  It's so normal, it's used as an explanation, and 
accepted without comment.  *Of course* that would be DD's reasoning.  
Isn't it everyone's?

Betsy Hp:
Exactly. Slytherins are lesser than. They're more selfish than 
Gryffindors, more easily corrupted, not to be trusted (unless they're 
suitably servile).

Which, if this were a Roald Dahl book (who wrote inhuman human 
characters very well indeed) would work for me. But you don't show me 
a suffering child and then expect me to believe their suffering is 
less meaningful than another child's because they're evil because the 
author says so. I've heard that sort of rhetoric before. It never 
leads to a good place, IMO. (I'm thinking of Draco's agony in HBP 
that didn't go anywhere in DH.)

Ceridwen:
I had a disconnect with Draco in DH.  When we see him with the DEs at 
Malfoy Manor, he seems uncomfortable.  His first mention in the book 
is of watching the revolving Muggle Studies teacher above the table.  
He is uncomfortable cursing the big blond DE.  He looks down.  He 
looks away.  He doesn't seem to want to really be a part of this.

Then, in the RoR, he is suddenly trying to be SuperDE.  He gets 
slapped down by Goyle, I think it was (daughter still has the book), 
but he keeps on playing DE.  When and where did this occur?  When did 
he change?  What happened to uncomfortable Draco?  I just didn't get 
that.

Betsy Hp:
Oh, I think DH itself makes perfectly clear that there are the "pure" 
and "impure", the "worthy" and the "unworthy". And I agree with 
lizzyben that it makes a waste of HBP. (Gosh, there were so many plot-
lines dropped between that book and DH.) Frankly, I didn't see the 
reason for books 2-6. A leap from PS/SS and DH would have worked 
quite well. There'd have only been a need for a few more character 
introductions.

Ceridwen:
It felt as if the dimensions which were added were only illusions, as 
if CoS-HBP had complementary 3-D glasses, and DH came without.  House 
unity, Draco's beginnings toward remorse, Snape's entire storyline, 
eleven year olds can't be reprobate, were figments of our 
imaginations based on astigmatized text.  When you take the glasses 
off, you have two distinct sets of lines, one red and the other blue, 
and they never were really integrated.

Betsy Hp:
"You are Gryffindor -- good and golden -- and it's the evil Slytherns 
keeping you down, making your beloved mother beg in the street! etc., 
etc., etc." Gosh, they could even do the old, "Yes we'll have to do 
some ugly things to win this war, throw a Crucio or two, but we 
are... Gryffindors! We are right and therefore we must do whatever it 
takes to win this battle and restore our pure and worthy race to its 
rightful place."

Ceridwen:
I've removed some of your analogy, because it so completely works for 
me just like this.  Gryffindor = Predetermined Saved, Slytherin = 
Predetermined Everything Your Mother Warned You About.  It seemed 
inconceivable to me that the books would imply that just by following 
the great Harry Potter, or the Divine Albus Dumbledore, you could 
break the law, use despicable tactics, and get away with them.  The 
Ministry was Less by not following Harry's directions regarding Stan 
Shunpike, sure, and Harry was proven wrong.  But, that was very 
little, and there was no firm resolution or follow-through.  The 
story never makes it clear beyond debate that Stan was indeed one of 
LV's marked and adoring followers.

I also don't think JKR intended this to be in the books.  I think it 
was from following the outline written up almost two decades before 
the series was finished.  She changed, her characters grew along with 
storylines and needed to be freed, but it didn't happen.  I suppose 
she might have thought it would all get away from her and instead of 
being seven books, would turn into seventeen or something, but I 
think some tweaking of the outline as events changed in the story 
might have been beneficial.

IMO, of course.

Ceridwen.