PS Chapter Two
Sep. 20th, 2010 05:18 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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deathtocapslock- The manner in which Dursleys abuse Harry is so over the top, it is hard to take seriously.
- Harry can't understand why would Dudley want to get a bicycle, since he apparently hates sports and is fat. Clearly, Dudley is morally deficient.
- Harry's glasses are held together only by Scotch tape, because Dudley punches him into nose so often. In the previous paragraph, it was stated that Harry is so fast, Dudley can't often catch him. These two sentences don't mesh together well.
- Not only is Harry not afraid of spiders, but also likes his scar. A true Gryffindor.
- Dudley is so fat he is like a pig. Hahaha, fat people are pathetic. Unless they're matronly of course.
- Okay, Dudley has no trouble while counting his gifts one by one, but when he has to add two at once, he is suddenly having problems?
- Harry find it hard to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg has broken her leg. The power of love at work, ladies and gentlemen.
- Petunia "looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this" is actually pretty interesting. If I remember Deathly Hallows correctly, Snape had some measure of control over his magic even before he entered Hogwarts and Petunia knew about it. As far as she knows, Harry may have caused Mrs. Figg to break her leg.
- Dudley is so spoiled he knows he only needs to pretend to cry to get all he wants.
- Again, Vernon warns Harry about doing anything weird. This and all the accounts of Harry's mishaps really reinforces the idea that the Dursleys are scared of Harry and think he is in control of his magic.
- Now that's Harry's school is mentioned, how come nobody noticed him being abused by the Dursleys? I don't mean classmates, I mean the school administration. They should know that both Harry and Dudley have the same address and they should know that Dursleys are Harry's legal guardians. Why didn't anyone the teachers notice that Harry's probably malnourished, wears only old clothes and his glasses are constantly getting broken, while Dudley's fat and owns only new things? I don't know that much about British educational system, especially in the eighties, but it probably wasn't that bad.
- In the zoo, Harry feels compassionate towards the snake. At this point, he's still a sympathetic kid.
- Now, after the snake incident, Piers claims that Harry was talking to the snake. Okay, but Parseltongue is apparently just hissing. So is Piers saying that Harry was talking just a simplification to avoid the revelation that Parseltongue is hissing? Or, if Harry was using human speech, why did the snake understand him?
- The Dursleys reaction is actually completely understandable. From their point of view, Harry was using is magic and from all the incidents that were mentioned, this one is the only one, where Dursleys could reasonably think that Harry was trying to attack them.
- And at the end of the chapter, we are again reminded that Harry is lonely and abused and that there's something mysterious about him.
- Harry can't understand why would Dudley want to get a bicycle, since he apparently hates sports and is fat. Clearly, Dudley is morally deficient.
- Harry's glasses are held together only by Scotch tape, because Dudley punches him into nose so often. In the previous paragraph, it was stated that Harry is so fast, Dudley can't often catch him. These two sentences don't mesh together well.
- Not only is Harry not afraid of spiders, but also likes his scar. A true Gryffindor.
- Dudley is so fat he is like a pig. Hahaha, fat people are pathetic. Unless they're matronly of course.
- Okay, Dudley has no trouble while counting his gifts one by one, but when he has to add two at once, he is suddenly having problems?
- Harry find it hard to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg has broken her leg. The power of love at work, ladies and gentlemen.
- Petunia "looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this" is actually pretty interesting. If I remember Deathly Hallows correctly, Snape had some measure of control over his magic even before he entered Hogwarts and Petunia knew about it. As far as she knows, Harry may have caused Mrs. Figg to break her leg.
- Dudley is so spoiled he knows he only needs to pretend to cry to get all he wants.
- Again, Vernon warns Harry about doing anything weird. This and all the accounts of Harry's mishaps really reinforces the idea that the Dursleys are scared of Harry and think he is in control of his magic.
- Now that's Harry's school is mentioned, how come nobody noticed him being abused by the Dursleys? I don't mean classmates, I mean the school administration. They should know that both Harry and Dudley have the same address and they should know that Dursleys are Harry's legal guardians. Why didn't anyone the teachers notice that Harry's probably malnourished, wears only old clothes and his glasses are constantly getting broken, while Dudley's fat and owns only new things? I don't know that much about British educational system, especially in the eighties, but it probably wasn't that bad.
- In the zoo, Harry feels compassionate towards the snake. At this point, he's still a sympathetic kid.
- Now, after the snake incident, Piers claims that Harry was talking to the snake. Okay, but Parseltongue is apparently just hissing. So is Piers saying that Harry was talking just a simplification to avoid the revelation that Parseltongue is hissing? Or, if Harry was using human speech, why did the snake understand him?
- The Dursleys reaction is actually completely understandable. From their point of view, Harry was using is magic and from all the incidents that were mentioned, this one is the only one, where Dursleys could reasonably think that Harry was trying to attack them.
- And at the end of the chapter, we are again reminded that Harry is lonely and abused and that there's something mysterious about him.
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Re: Types of Courage
Date: 2010-09-21 11:34 am (UTC)Probably the latter - Dumbledore also says something along the lines of "surely you're not feeling sorry for Lord Voldemort" in that conversation. Compassionate assassins aren't a good investment of time.
Re: Types of Courage
Date: 2010-09-21 02:56 pm (UTC)And so what if he is, Dumbledore? What's wrong with feeling sympathy for the devil? Sympathizing with someone doesn't always mean that you condone their actions. I can feel sorry for Adolf Hitler having an awful childhood, that doesn't mean that I condone what he did once he grew up.
Why wouldn't Harry feel sorry for Voldemort, especially since he also grew up without parents and without a sense of belonging? If anything, he should have told Dumbledore, "You knew that he considered Hogwarts his home and didn't like staying in the orphanage, but you still sent him back there year after year. You know that I consider Hogwarts my home and that I hate living with the Dursleys, but you send *me* back there year after year. What is *wrong* with you?"
Re: Types of Courage
Date: 2010-09-24 02:46 pm (UTC)Re: Types of Courage
Date: 2010-09-24 07:11 pm (UTC)During the course of the series, we were repeatedly told that the main thing that separated Harry and Voldemort was love. Ironically, in the same book where Dumbledore questioned Harry's sympathy for Voldemort, he stressed that Harry's ability to love was the one thing that set him apart from Voldemort and that could help defeat him.
Yet what ultimately defeats Voldemort at the end? A technicality about wand ownership. If Harry hadn't happened to take Draco's wand at the moment he did, sacrifice or no sacrifice, he would have lost. The power the Dark Lord knows not was the power of the Elder Wand and wand ownership, apparently.
I mean, good grief, I wasn't expecting Harry and Voldemort to end up hugging each other by the end while singing "Kumbaya," but I thought that Power of Love would somehow play a role. Doesn't anyone in the book at least feel sorry in the sense that Voldemort's life was a waste? That he had all that talent, all that potential, all that promise to turn his life around and chose to squander it all in favor of killing people to gain immortality? Would it have been so bad for Harry to spare a few words, a few thoughts about that?
But no, as soon as Voldemort's dead, that's it. Harry beats him, people celebrate, and then Harry turns around and leaves. No more reflection, no more thinking, now Voldemort's just an afterthought. As well as the Death Eaters who fought for him.