Hmm this what I always like about your musings, they make me furiously examine my own *laughs*. I have to agree that on a realistic level, children like Draco Malfoy and the Slytherins are not the sort of children I would have gotten along with. In fact, I knew plenty of snotty little brats who made my life miserable around 11-13 years old, horrible little rich girls who would pick on me relentlessly and screech such things as "nice shirt, where did you buy it, WALMART?". I loathed those children at the time, especially the ring leader who never seemed to like me from the moment we met, and all throughout our school careers, when she could not get her friends to screech insults at me, she would just glare at me. I remember finding out that her parents were divorced, and she was very unhappy at home, and feeling glad because I thought she deserved it.
But what I remember most, is that all save that particular one of the five girls who made my life miserable in middle school, something happened to them. What was it, you ask? They grew up. By the time I graduated highschool, three of those same girls who went to my college stopped to offer me a ride when I was trudging up from the parking pit in the rain, and were friendly and kind to me. Amazing, no? One of the characters themselves said as much in OotP, when Sirius said that _lots_ of people are idiots at the age of fifteen. I hate to think that this only applies to the children who are idiots for the right reasons-- it's alright to be an idiot, so long as you only torment the people who really deserve it anyway. I was a horrible child when I was in elementary school-- I bossed my friends around and made an overweight little girl cry because my friends and I made up juvenile songs about her living in a stable because she was so fat. Why? Because I was a child, and I was selfish, and spoiled, and I grew older, and developed a sense of empathy, and grew out of it, and I remember running into that same girl a few years ago, and we got along famously.
I feel like this has been said an awful lot before, but what I don't like about the way the Slytherin children are depicted in these books, unless there is a new perspective gained in the following books that I am desperately hoping for, is that this is an entire group of children that don't seem to have matured at all over five years, during a period when most every teenager changes dramatically to some extent. And most of all I hate the idea that because Draco Malfoy was a rotten little eleven year old brat from the moment we saw him, with a rotten family, and a rotten attitude, that he is just a throw-away child and there is no reason to show an interest in his character. I don't particularly even want him to be 'redeemed'-- I just want him and the other Slytherins to be fleshed out ,and depicted as real children, as people, like the others are. I suppose that is my investment in wanting something more to be done with our little Draco and the rest; I see so much potential in him as a character, and can't bear the thought that he is just there to be this static little bully, drifting about in the background and throwing taunts. I just want him to do something, to change in some way, for better or worse-- just go somewhere, anywhere. Even as a child, I was always fascinated with characters that change dramatically throughout the course of a story-- 'evil' characters that become 'good', 'good' characters that become 'evil', etc. I suppose it's that mutability of human nature that I've always been fascinated with, which probably says a lot about me, eh? I guess the idea of personal growth as a very fluid, non-static process has always been important to me. Go figure.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-03-10 07:33 pm (UTC)But what I remember most, is that all save that particular one of the five girls who made my life miserable in middle school, something happened to them. What was it, you ask? They grew up. By the time I graduated highschool, three of those same girls who went to my college stopped to offer me a ride when I was trudging up from the parking pit in the rain, and were friendly and kind to me. Amazing, no? One of the characters themselves said as much in OotP, when Sirius said that _lots_ of people are idiots at the age of fifteen. I hate to think that this only applies to the children who are idiots for the right reasons-- it's alright to be an idiot, so long as you only torment the people who really deserve it anyway. I was a horrible child when I was in elementary school-- I bossed my friends around and made an overweight little girl cry because my friends and I made up juvenile songs about her living in a stable because she was so fat. Why? Because I was a child, and I was selfish, and spoiled, and I grew older, and developed a sense of empathy, and grew out of it, and I remember running into that same girl a few years ago, and we got along famously.
I feel like this has been said an awful lot before, but what I don't like about the way the Slytherin children are depicted in these books, unless there is a new perspective gained in the following books that I am desperately hoping for, is that this is an entire group of children that don't seem to have matured at all over five years, during a period when most every teenager changes dramatically to some extent. And most of all I hate the idea that because Draco Malfoy was a rotten little eleven year old brat from the moment we saw him, with a rotten family, and a rotten attitude, that he is just a throw-away child and there is no reason to show an interest in his character. I don't particularly even want him to be 'redeemed'-- I just want him and the other Slytherins to be fleshed out ,and depicted as real children, as people, like the others are. I suppose that is my investment in wanting something more to be done with our little Draco and the rest; I see so much potential in him as a character, and can't bear the thought that he is just there to be this static little bully, drifting about in the background and throwing taunts. I just want him to do something, to change in some way, for better or worse-- just go somewhere, anywhere. Even as a child, I was always fascinated with characters that change dramatically throughout the course of a story-- 'evil' characters that become 'good', 'good' characters that become 'evil', etc. I suppose it's that mutability of human nature that I've always been fascinated with, which probably says a lot about me, eh? I guess the idea of personal growth as a very fluid, non-static process has always been important to me. Go figure.