Well, obviously there's the whole Voldemort and Death Eater thing, but for some reason I see that as different. Kinda like it was all just sort of a fairy-tale type thing, a wonderful adventure. Only now he's seeing the truth of it all, and it's no wonderful adventure at all, it's ugly and scary.
In HBP I don't so much see him as changing his beliefs as seeing the truth. All the ugly alleyways in the golden city of his world, with homeless people begging for money and scary looking people trying to sell him secret wares. The core of his beliefs and values, to me, is family first, family always first before anything and everything. That's a belief that he has and I think has always had. But the Voldemort thing, it was more just an idealistic fantasy, a fairy-tale he'd fall asleep to and dream about. You can love the idea of knights in shining armour and flying unicorns, but it's not really a belief, and I think that with Draco is was along the same lines.
I don't even think he was raised to believe that. The war was over, and from what I see, Lucius didn't want his son to have anything at all to do with Voldemort. So I think that Draco just sort of picked up the romantic view of it all on his own. Lucius didn't want his son to know the truth about how ugly it all was, but he couldn't actually lie and say he had nothing to do with it, so he sugared it up, and the price of that was that Draco saw it as a grand story. But I don't think that he encouraged his son to believe in it, that he preached it to him, or anything like that. Draco just sort of adopted that romantic story of good and evil and right and wrong.
And mudbloods just sort of figured into that fantasy world with Voldemort at the center of it all. He's like that guy and lady who are singing the spiderman song for money in the movies. He goes off screaming mudblood to show his support of Voldemort and the Death Eaters and his love of the whole situation, but he's never actually seen Voldemort or anything, and saying mudblood is like giving off the Hitler's salute, or singing a national anthem, or quoting the family motto. It's just a tribute he's paying to Voldemort and what Voldemort stood for. But it never really had any meaning to him, any significance, I don't think. It was all just sort of an afterthought for him. He's not learning to see mudbloods as great people or even just regular humans as oppose to filthy slime - he's had no connection with any at all in HBP (he has quite a few ties with half-bloods, of course, but not mudbloods).
I've said before that for all of Draco's vocal prejudism, no teacher has ever thought about actually forbidding him to say the word, or docking points when he does so, or basically just telling him not to do it. So he just kept right on doing it. Dumbledore saying not to use the word mudblood around him, I don't see that as something that's going to change his views on how he sees mudbloods. All I see it doing is teaching him to show them a little more courtesy. I think that, take away all the times Draco has vocally said the word mudblood, nobody would ever have guessed he's be prejudiced but for the first time we see him at Madam Malkin's. Because all he ever does to show his prejudism is to say mudblood.
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Date: 2005-12-04 07:15 pm (UTC)In HBP I don't so much see him as changing his beliefs as seeing the truth. All the ugly alleyways in the golden city of his world, with homeless people begging for money and scary looking people trying to sell him secret wares. The core of his beliefs and values, to me, is family first, family always first before anything and everything. That's a belief that he has and I think has always had. But the Voldemort thing, it was more just an idealistic fantasy, a fairy-tale he'd fall asleep to and dream about. You can love the idea of knights in shining armour and flying unicorns, but it's not really a belief, and I think that with Draco is was along the same lines.
I don't even think he was raised to believe that. The war was over, and from what I see, Lucius didn't want his son to have anything at all to do with Voldemort. So I think that Draco just sort of picked up the romantic view of it all on his own. Lucius didn't want his son to know the truth about how ugly it all was, but he couldn't actually lie and say he had nothing to do with it, so he sugared it up, and the price of that was that Draco saw it as a grand story. But I don't think that he encouraged his son to believe in it, that he preached it to him, or anything like that. Draco just sort of adopted that romantic story of good and evil and right and wrong.
And mudbloods just sort of figured into that fantasy world with Voldemort at the center of it all. He's like that guy and lady who are singing the spiderman song for money in the movies. He goes off screaming mudblood to show his support of Voldemort and the Death Eaters and his love of the whole situation, but he's never actually seen Voldemort or anything, and saying mudblood is like giving off the Hitler's salute, or singing a national anthem, or quoting the family motto. It's just a tribute he's paying to Voldemort and what Voldemort stood for. But it never really had any meaning to him, any significance, I don't think. It was all just sort of an afterthought for him. He's not learning to see mudbloods as great people or even just regular humans as oppose to filthy slime - he's had no connection with any at all in HBP (he has quite a few ties with half-bloods, of course, but not mudbloods).
I've said before that for all of Draco's vocal prejudism, no teacher has ever thought about actually forbidding him to say the word, or docking points when he does so, or basically just telling him not to do it. So he just kept right on doing it. Dumbledore saying not to use the word mudblood around him, I don't see that as something that's going to change his views on how he sees mudbloods. All I see it doing is teaching him to show them a little more courtesy. I think that, take away all the times Draco has vocally said the word mudblood, nobody would ever have guessed he's be prejudiced but for the first time we see him at Madam Malkin's. Because all he ever does to show his prejudism is to say mudblood.