Tom Riddle's inability to love

[kempermentor]

No: HPFGUIDX 181514


> Bdclark0423:
> Once again, I fail to see why there needs to be the connection of 
> labeling someone a psychopath and the inability to love, because 
> it's not relevant to the message JKR is giving us. 
> 
> Ok, Volde is psycho, born that way or made that way, I'm not 
> disputing it.  However, that's not what gives us a reason to read 
> the story.  We've got the hero and the villian who come from the 
> exact same background.  Both are orphaned, both live in horrible 
> conditions, and then they are given the chance to become better 
> people when they're accepted to Hogwarts .  


Kemper now:
It seems that Tom Riddle was born bad.

Prior to HBP, I thought that Tom was raised in horrible conditions at
the orphanage.  But when we see it through DD's memory, it does not
appear to be that bad.  The Matron, Mrs. Cole, seems concerned that
Tom bullies the other kids and can't catch him.  Though the orphanage
has worn and mismatched furniture, it seems a clean and well lit
place; not like the festering sty of abuse that I had imagined.  

Harry thinks the kids are well-cared for but that the orphanage would
still be a grim place in which to grow up.  These thoughts seem
incongruous: if youth are well cared for, how is it grim... unless
Harry means the overall reason for an orphanage (dead/fleeing parents,
unwanted by others).  The orphanage is not horrible conditions.  Tom
had a room, not a cupboard. 

Antisocial people (as opposed to asocial) are made by their
environment.  I don't think Tom was antisocial.  But he may be
psychopathic.  He may as a psychopath feel love, I don't know, but
it's apparent he doesn't know how to display love.

Kemper