Draco...Interesting?

sistermagpie sistermagpie at earthlink.net
Wed Sep 12 18:52:39 UTC 2007


No: HPFGUIDX 176992

> > Katie:
> He swallows all the crap that his parents have 
> > > taught him hook, line, and sinker, and like all bullies - he's 
a 
> > > wimp, deep down. 
> 
> Pippin:
> There are a lot of bullies in canon who aren't wimps. Snape.
> Scrimgeour. Sirius and James.

Magpie:
I don't think Sirius, James or Scrimgeour are wimps.
> 
>  Magpie:
> 
> > Dudley's a far better bully and far more run of the mill because 
> > he's not highly strung and on the verge of a breakdown most of 
the 
> > time) . 
> 
> Pippin:
> Nobody tried to force Dudley to kill people. But he was certainly
> high strung and on the verge of a breakdown after his encounter
> with the dementors.

Magpie:
I wasn't referring to him after he was forced to kill someone. His 
normal state was, imo, far more highly strung and spazzy than 
Dudley, who seemed to rule his school quite pleasantly for years. 
Draco, of course, couldn't even do that--Dudley could keep Harry in 
his place and Draco couldn't. Dudley's a far more successful bully 
and much more satisfied in his everyday life that we see. Dudley 
only gets freaked out by Wizards. In his Muggle world he's doing 
pretty well.

Pippin:
 It's clear that something had a life-changing
> effect on him.  I didn't really get that it was the dementors, 
> but for the sake of the narrative all Harry needs to know is that
> people *can* change. Putting in how it happened would shift
> the emphasis from judging people by their choices to judging
> them by what's happened to them, which is not what JKR wants,
> IMO. It's Harry who's the essentiallist, not her, IMO.

Magpie:
I think Harry and JKR are together on this. I think Dudley and Draco 
turned into exactly the person they always were, and their life-
changing experiences didn't make them who they were but showed who 
they were. Dudley liked Harry when Harry saved his life. I don't 
think he changed much beyond that. Even when Harry's pleased by 
Dudley's change of attitude about him he's still Dudley--"He didn't 
thank me" etc. The last thing I would take away from this series is 
the lesson that people can change. There are some changes for plot's 
sake, sometimes people take a while to show who they really are, but 
I think JKR was quite serious when she referred to her characters as 
chess pieces. I think they have their signature move and that's who 
they are.
> 
> Magpie:
> > I had always hoped for the kind of story we got in HBP so I was 
> > pleased with that--I was totally disappointed when I realized 
that 
> > JKR is rather essentialist in the way she writes characters, so 
that 
> > putting a character like Draco through the wringer doesn't 
result in 
> > the character really growing or getting stronger. 
> 
> Pippin:
> Huh?
> That he chose not to let go of Goyle was tremendous growth
> and strengthening, IMO. Again we don't know how it happened.
> We have no choice but to judge Draco by his choices, not his 
> experiences. It's certainly not what I would have expected from 
> the boy who panicked when he saw what turned out to be Quirrell 
> in PS/SS. 

> A lot of people who liked Draco as a character liked him better
> than Ron and frankly hoped that Draco would replace him, either
> as Harry's friend or Hermione's love interest. For most of canon
> Draco was way ahead of Ron in the wish-fulfillment department:
> he looked  to be more intelligent, more witty and more exotic and
> of course having the best of everything doesn't hurt.

Magpie:
I didn't find it much of a growth, no. Or perhaps I should say I 
didn't find it much of a change. He grew and got stronger--he did, 
after all, go from 11 to 17. But no, I don't think his character was 
much transformed at all--just as I don't think Neville transformed. 
He grew and got stronger too, but he was still, imo, showing who he 
was. My experience of his story was still one of being underwhelmed. 
After all that I think more significant change would have been a lot 
more natural. I think I saw the changes that were there, they just 
weren't very fundamental, imo. (Nor were they for Dudley, imo.) And 
given the way his big moment saving Goyle is written, I get the 
feeling people read more into it than the author intended. He 
certainly shows himself to be a different man than Goyle, but if 
this was a big moment of Draco showing bravery, I think JKR would 
have lingered over it a bit and have Harry recognize it and think 
about it too. I don't see such a huge difference between the 11-year-
boy who panicked in PS/SS and the 17-year-boy who wouldn't run out 
of a fire leaving his friend unconcious in it. I think the second 
boy was in the first boy all along--just as the Keeper who won the 
Quidditch cup for Gryffindor fifth year was always in the one who 
screwed up in the earlier games.

I'm not sure what Ron vs. Draco has to do with it--I'd be surprised 
at too many readers considering Draco a wish-fulfillment for what 
they wanted to be. 

-m






More information about the HPforGrownups archive