Fathers (was: A message?)

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 178953

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "muscatel1988" <cottell at ...> wrote:

> Mus:
> I should have said that my list was only partial.  :-)
> 
> > Ambition leads fathers to neglect the emotional needs of their wives
> > and children, and so, while it helps the family financially and 
> > socially, it seems hollow to the people who never get to see Dad. 
> 
> <snip> 
> 
> > Lucius is the social-climbing father, projecting his own desire for
> > status onto Draco (pushing him to get the "best" grades, pushing him
> > onto the Quidditch team, trying to manuveur out Dumbledore in order
> > to move in a more pro-Draco Headmaster...)
> 
> Mus:
> But Lucius is in the poorly-populated Engaged!Daddy category.  He's
> present in his child's life, accompanying him to Diagon Alley, on the
> board of the school and so on.  His buying brooms for the team is
> rather reminiscent of MacGonagall's covertly buying one for Harry - in
> both cases, purchasing the best equipment is the price of having their
> protegé on the team, and Draco does actually make an o.k. Seeker.

Montavilla47:
I think that's a good point.  I may be too rigid in my thinking about
Lucius.  I don't think he's a horrible father--but I think he's the kind
of father with high, strictly defined expectations of his son--
especially in the earlier books.

I also think that the Malfoy family's tightness in the last book is a
direct result of the danger they've been in the last two years.  For
someone as invested in social status as Lucius, going to prison would
have been a great blow.  But, that would pale to knowing that your
son and wife are threatened with death.

I kind of see the Malfoy arc as going from a family  in which the 
family loves each other in a distant, "proper" manner--but then
discovers that the trappings of wealth, position, etc., are not
as important as the people they truly love.  But that's just my
take on it.

> Mus:
> I missed Crouch too!  To be fair to him, though, we really only have
> his son's word for what he was like as a father, and Barty Jnr is
> clearly a nutter, filled with loathing for the man who justly
> sentenced him to Azkaban.  

Montavilla47:
We also have Sirius's description of Crouch as being obsessed
with his job and neglecting his family.  But that is also heresay.:)

Mus:
> If your reading of Amos is true, then I'm saddened.  Cedric would be
> any father's delight - popular, decent, brave, modest, chosen to
> represent his school.  Amos would be *right* to be proud of him.  If
> he had to be taken down a notch for that, that's a little dispiriting.

Montavilla47:
I could just be falling for the Harry filter in my reading of Amos.  I agree
 that you're right about his right to be proud of Amos.  But it seems to 
embarrass Cedric.

It seems to me to be Amos trying to piggyback onto Cedric's success
by puffing it up to the point where it becomes annoying.  Of course, 
there's no direct connection between that and Cedric's death--but I 
was left with the impression that Amos was being taken down a peg
by... fate or whatever... for his pride.

Montavilla47