My opening arguments- lots of canon (long)
Randy
estesrandy at estesrandy.yahoo.invalid
Fri Feb 10 18:56:00 UTC 2006
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, I present my opening arguments
regarding the 7 deadly sins as the themes of the Harry Potter book
series
.
1. PRIDE /VANITY
First sentence of Book One:
p.1
"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were `PROUD" to
say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
p.13 (pride discussed)
"
every child in our world will know his name!"
"Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of
his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head."
Dumbledore does not want Harry to have too much pride in his
abilities at too young an age.
p. 30
"Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the
street seemed to know him. "
Seeing ourselves as we are and not comparing ourselves to others is
Humility. Harry needs humility to see himself properly in the Mirror
of Erised and retrieve the stone.
p.308
""People jostled them as they moved forward toward the gateway back
to the Muggle world. Some of them called:
"Bye, Harry!'
`See you, Potter!'
`Still famous,' said Ron, grinning at him
`Not where I'm going, I promise you,' said Harry.
He, Ron, and Hermione passed through the gateway together. `There he
is, Mom, there he is, look!'
It was Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister, but she wasn't pointing
at Ron.
"Harry Potter!" she squealed. "Look, Mom! I can see-"
"Be quiet, Ginny, and it's rude to point."
This notoriety would like to excessive Pride (Vanity) and that is why
Harry must go back to the Dursley's. Ginny seems in awe of Harry and
perhaps she wants to be like him. Could she be envious of him?
2. ENVY
Book Two:
p.10 (envy discussed)
"Wish they could see famous Harry Potter now, he thought savagely
"
After Lockhart gets his picture taken with Harry and gives him free
books, Draco shows his envy. Envy resents the good others receive or
even might receive.
p. 61
"Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?" said a voice Harry had no
trouble recognizing. He straightened up and found himself face-to-
face with Draco Malfoy, who was wearing his usual sneer.
"Famous Harry Potter," said Malfoy. "Can't even go into a bookshop
without making the front page."
To wish to be like someone else. Harry and Ron turn into Crabbe and
Goyle. Tom
Riddle wants to be like than Slytherin. Argus Filch is envious of the
Wizards at Hogwarts because he is just a Squib. (p. 142)
3. SLOTH
Book Three:
p.15 (sloth discussed)
"Deciding that he'd worry about the Hogsmeade form when he woke up.
Harry got back into bed
"
In the above sentence, Harry demonstrates a little sloth. But finally
takes action when pushed by Aunt Marge.
p.28
"He –didn't work," said Uncle Vernon, with half a glance at
Harry. `Unemployed.'
`As I expected!' said Aunt Marge, taking a huge swig of brandy and
wiping her chin on her sleeve. ` A no-account, good-for-nothing, lazy
scrounger who-`"
This argument (and the Aunt Marge inflation incident) leads Harry to
take action and leave the Dursleys.
4. LUST
Book Four: (lust metaphors)
Chapters One and Two:
Harry awakes from a bad dream (which involves snakes and a discussion
of a woman who had been kidnapped and killed) with his scar hurting.
He is afraid to tell anyone about the dream. He does feel that he
can tell Sirius Black about his scar hurting but does not get up the
courage to talk about his dream.
Okay, this is a stretch, but it could be a 14 year old boy waking up
from his first wet dream and being afraid to talk about it to
anyone. Voldemort lusts after a body. A large snake is curled up in
front of a warm fire. Bertha Jorkins kidnapped and killed. Later in
the book we meet beautiful women from Beauxbatons and athletic men
from Durmstrang. The teenagers from Hogwarts are in lust!
5. ANGER
Book Five:
Chapter One:
p. 13 (anger discussed)
It gave Harry enormous satisfaction to know how furious he was making
Dudley; he felt as though he was siphoning off his own frustration
into his cousin, the only outlet he had."
An argument between Dudley and Harry ensues and almost leads to a
fight when the Dementors show up.
Later in the chapter on p. 19 Mrs Figg says: "I'm going to kill
Mundugus Fletcher!"
This book is filled with anger. Professor Umbridge (umbrage means
anger) gets angry at the students, the teachers, and Dumbledore.
Harry gets angry at Dumbledore. Sirius and Snape are angry at each
other. Anger comes from impatience. Sirius is impatient, and Harry
becomes impatient to rescue Sirius at the MOM. The Order of the
Phoenix is a symbol of the flaming of emotion that is anger which
returns to calm and rebirth of the old self.
The book even ends with a threat of a fight!
p. 869
"Yeah, if we get any hint that Potter's been mistreated in any way,
you'll have us to answer to," said Moody.
Uncle Vernon swelled ominously. His sense of outrage seemed to
outweigh even his fear of this bunch of oddballs.
"Are you threatening me, sir?" he said , so loudly that passersby
actually turned to stare.
6. GREED (in terms of wanting to get the credit and praise and more!)
Book Six:
Snape and Bellatrix argue about who should have the highest status
with the Dark Lord.
p. 29
"He shares everything with me!" said Bellatrix, firing up at
once. `He calls me his most loyal, his most faithful-"
p. 34
Narcissa tries to convince Snape to help her and Draco:
"You could do it. You could do it instead of Draco, Severus. You
would succeed, of course you would, and he would reward you beyond
all of us-"
Harry likes the fame that the HBP potions book gets him. Young Tom
Riddle greedily wants all the special objects of the other kids at
the orphanage.
Draco is worried that Snape wants to get credit for killing
Dumbledore instead of him.
Later on, the Ministry of Magic wishes to get credit for doing a good
job against Voldemort by using Harry's name as a consultant.
p. 649
"So," said Scrimgeour, his voice cold now, "the request I made of you
at Christmas-"
"What request? Oh yeah
the one where I tell the world what a great
job you're doing in exchange for-"
"-for raising everyone's morale!" snapped Scrimgeour.
Scrimgeour still wants to get the credit and praise!
7. GLUTTONY
This book has not been written yet, but we know it deals with
Voldemort's desire for immortality which is truly being a glutton for
life!
Red Eye Randy closes his opening statements and awaits the defense
attorneys replies.
More information about the the_old_crowd
archive