Wands and Wizards...Again

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 183625


> Montavilla47:
> Me, three.  I understand why Harry did it.  What I don't
> understand is why JKR did it.

Pippin:
Why did George Lucas have Luke lose it and go after Vader in RotJ?
Because Luke had to recognize that he was capable of becoming what
Vader is. He had to *choose* to be a Jedi. 

The audience knows that Luke is making a wrong decision before Luke
does. We're cued by the Emperor cheering and by the music. In Rowling,
we're cued by Harry saying that he understands what Bella meant. If
Bella were there, she'd cheer, wouldn't she? She'd crucio Amycus
herself for failing the Dark Lord. 

It's  more complicated in Rowling, because in Star Wars Luke already
has a personal reason to know that it matters how he treats Vader. JKR
hasn't yet given Harry a personal reason to think that it matters how
he treats a Death Eater. But she will.

There are ways to do that besides  having someone punish or admonish
Harry. As a matter of fact Luke doesn't get punished, or admonished
either -- his mentors were telling him that killing Vader was okay.
Luke doesn't have a line where he says he was wrong. He shows us he
knows he was wrong through his actions. He acknowledges his father, he
throws the light saber away, and he honors his father in death. 


We don't get the scene that maybe some people wanted, where Harry
throws his wand away and Snape saves him. For JKR that's too easy.
IMO, she wants us to love people for their hidden worth, even if they
themselves never discover it,  even if they're broken or damaged or
not what they pretended to be. 

The way the House-elves have to punish themselves shows us how 
sometimes punishment is wrong even if the person is guilty. Why does
Harry need to be punished? Harry doesn't need to be hurt to know what
a crucio feels like. And hurting Harry wouldn't make him see that it
mattered how he treated Amycus any more than Snape's detentions made
him see that it mattered how he treated Draco.

Harry recognizes Draco's humanity when he sees that he and Draco are
in common danger from the fire. Harry hears a "thin human scream."  He
recognizes Snape's humanity when he finally believes he and Snape were
in a common struggle with Voldemort. It harks back to facing the troll
and the teachers together -- that was what made Ron and Harry start
treating  Hermione as a person like themselves instead of a teacher's pet.

If we're old enough to think that way, JKR doesn't want us to be
against torture  because torture is eeevil. She wants us to be against
torture because it causes unnecessary pain to a human being. 

Likewise she doesn't want us to be against slavery because slavery is
evil. She wants us to be against it because it's the involuntary
degradation of a human being. If we wouldn't object to House-elf
slavery if it was called something else, then it's only the name we're
objecting to, and fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.

Once you've labeled something as evil, you're saying it can't or
shouldn't be tolerated. Good people don't tolerate evil, they drive it
out. But driving out the bad leaves them to be used by the worst.
That's what happens to the werewolves and the giants. 

It's pretty clear that if a House-elf ever arose who had Dobby's
desire for independence  and Kreacher's desire for revenge, the
wizards would be in serious trouble. 

Pippin