Draco to be bad (was: Snape's the Rescuer - Really?/Justice to Snape)

[bfiw2002]

No: HPFGUIDX 170785


> SSSusan:
> Weeeeeeell, I'm not so sure. :)
>
> I mean, yes, I know the interview to which you refer, but I also
know
> how JKR wrote HBP.  In HBP we encounter a Draco who's crying in a
> bathroom to Moaning Myrtle, his whole body wracked with emotion
> (iirc).  We encounter a Draco for whom **Harry** now harbors a
small
> bit of pity, not just hatred.
>
> Do you not think JKR moved Draco along in Book 6?  Turned him into
a
> person somewhat more easy to sympathize, if not quite empathize,
> with?
>
> I know your main point is about Snape and JKR writing him 'to be
bad,'
> but since you made that claim about Draco, too, I just felt
compelled
> to say that I think JKR is not really writing Draco 'to be bad'
> anymore.  We have decidedly encountered a lot less black-and-white
in
> the later books and a lot more grey.  I think Draco and what he
is,
> what he faces, what he elicits in Harry, is no longer
just 'written to
> be bad' but is written to be more fully considered, even to be
pitied
> a *little* (even if we still loathe much about him).

Biff

I actually agree with you :), and when I read HBP and saw Draco
sobbing in the restroom, and his wavering on the Astronomy Tower in
front of Dumbledore, I was thinking, "but but but, you said he was
bad, Jo!". But I also realized that she is writing fully-formed
characters and neither Snape nor Draco could continue in the series
without seeing these other parts of them- they are both too
important to the series for them to remain shallow, like Crabbe and
Goyle. We have also seen Hermoine go from pious brainiac and
terminal do-gooder to thinking up the DA and Ron went from being
Harry's best buddy and comic relief to showing his jealousy of his
best friend...and mindless face-sucking of Lavendar Brown :). I
don't believe that any well-written story can have black and white
characters and be successful. I think I would have been very
disappointed if we didn't see this. However, it still doesn't change
my opinion that JK Rowling wrote the characters initially as she
wanted them to be seen. I don't believe that any one of the people
in the book are purely black or white. Everything and everyone has
shades of grey, which allows us to have these conversations.

Biff