About heroes...

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 187925

rhkennerly wrote:
> Isn't this the same PNB who feigned sleep in his portrait to avoid a mission when DD tried to send him off to Grimmauld Place the night Arthur Weasley was attacked by the snake?  He had to be shamed into taking the job by the other portraits.  
Bart:
    Ah, this brings up one of my favorite topics. Over the years, and 
particularly since the 2nd World War, the idea of heroes has been 
changed. Before, heroes were human. They were by no means perfect; they 
have characteristics that many would find reprehensible. What made them 
heroic was not just that they accomplished great things, but that they 
were able to transcend their own faults to accomplish great things. 
Consider, for example, Slughorn, who loved his comfort, and wanted to 
stay in the background, out of the way of things, but, when push came to 
shove, even when he had the opportunity to slink into the background 
instead, overcame his own limitations to join the fight against Morty.

    These days, heroes are supposed to be faultless, or for their faults 
to only on the surface, easily brushed away. If they are found to have 
true faults, then they are no longer heroes. Since everybody has true 
faults, it means that the only heroes these days are found in fiction.

    Which is a true shame.

    But, going into the fictional universe of Harry Potter, yes, Finny 
has to be shamed into action. But the fact that he CAN be shamed into 
action is actually a point in his favor. He doesn't want to do the right 
thing; it goes against his grain. But he ends up doing it anyway, 
without being forced to do so, because it is the right thing. Compare 
this to Harry, who has been carefully manipulated his entire life into 
doing the right thing; true, if it weren't for his preparation, as 
nearly as we can tell, he would have died and stayed dead. But his 
freely offering himself to Morty, which turns his mortysoul into a 
buffer against Morty's AK, is not an overcoming of deep-seated 
personality traits; self-sacrifice is not a trait which Harry lacks.

    The greatest battle a hero must fight is with him or herself. And 
those who have won that battle, in real life or fiction, will not be 
considered heroes by the majority of Westerners born past 1935 or so, 
not because the hero was not heroic, but because hero had the flaw to be 
overcome in the first place.

    Bart