Dark Book - Blood and Cruelty/ Draco

[lizzyben04]

No: HPFGUIDX 177289

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "starview316" 
<starview316 at ...> wrote:
>
> > lizzyben:
> <SNIP>
> > I keep forgetting that none of this matters anymore - it doesn't
> > matter who starts the fights or who over-reacts or who is BMOC.
> > Harry is the saved, Draco is the damned. Harry is the Elect,
> > Snape is the reprobate. Harry wins because he's got God on his
> > side. What's left to debate?
> <SNIP>
> 
> Amy:
> 
> Not to be argumentative or anything, ('cause for the most part, I
> agree with a lot of what you said here) but was Draco 
really "damned"
> in the HP series?

lizzyben: 

Yeah, IMO he was. If JKR started out w/a Calvinist allegory, and 
Slytherins are the non-elect, they're damned. That's why she was so 
insistent on not creating a truly "good" Slytherin - they are meant 
to be the House of the reprobate unsaved. It's also handy to have 
them around to smite.

Amy:
> I don't know if it's been discussed before, but even given the 
heavy
> connotations of Slytherin = the damned in the final book, I'm hard
> pressed to believe that anyone reading this series will not see a
> forgiven, if not "redeemed" Draco in DH. The narrative was 
extremely
> sympathetic to him. I'd say one of the major anvils in DH was that
> Draco didn't want to be a Death Eater, in case no one got that from
> HBP. I don't know exactly who said it, but Draco has a normal 
family,
> wife and kid, in the epilogue, and that if anything indicated that
> he'd been "redeemed" in JKR's world.
> 
> Amy


lizzyben:

And a receding hairline! And a kid named "Scorpius!" (Scorpions, 
like snakes, are symbols of Satan.* Coincidence?) Has Draco changed 
his ideology, has he been forgiven by the author? I'm not sure. 

Forgiven, maybe. Redeemed? No. I don't think JKR really believes in 
the concept of redemption, though she pays it some lip-service. 
Redemption is not a part of traditional Calvinist thought - you are 
sorted Elect or damned from before birth, and there's no changing 
that. People are saved through grace, not good works. A reprobate 
might devote his life to charity, kindness & goodness and still not 
be Saved. 

This seems harsh, maybe, but that's what Calvinism preaches. To a 
Calvinist, your neighbor, your spouse, even you yourself might be 
damned - there's no way to know who has been predestined for 
salvation. This is true even if they are nice people or have some 
good qualities - most people do have something good, but most people 
are not saved. Only the Elect get the ticket. The difference is that 
in the Potterverse, through magic, we *do* know who is in the Elect.

I think JKR started out w/this black-and-white, saved-and-damned 
viewpoint. Slytherins are the damned, full stop. But the problem was 
that over time, she spent so much time with these characters that 
she couldn't help making them, well, human. Draco's love for his 
family, Narcissa's courage, Lucius's loyalty, Snape's protectiveness 
all came out without her even knowing it. She started to feel sorry 
for Draco, Narcissa and even Snape. And she struggled. It's much 
easier to condemn faceless strangers, than to condemn people you 
know and care about. So that's why we end up w/this ending in which 
Slytherins as a group are condemned, yet the major Slytherin 
characters all seem to be forgiven. 

But to a good Calvinist, this is bad. You shouldn't question God's 
will or his Election - don't look at the damned, there is no help 
possible. I think that's DD ordering Harry (and JKR) over & over 
again to stop feeling sympathy for the reprobate. Harry learns to 
tune out its cries, as does JKR, in order to finish the black-and-
white, saved-and-damned allegory she had started.


lizzyben


* "The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the 
demons submit to us in your name." He [Jesus] replied, "I saw Satan 
fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to 
trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the 
enemy; nothing will harm you." 
Luke 10:17-19