Draco Malfoy

My posts from now till book 7 is released will probably be less of the "whole system of things" kind of thing and more like this one, simply smaller character observations that occur to me as I haphazardly re-experience the books while waiting for # 7 and trying to get started on grad work in NYC and all. There may be some of the "symbols" material that coalesces in my brain from the books in the course of conversations and all, but the material that is still out there for me has to coalesce and congeal more in my brain now. So, these types of posts are from the congealing (don't you just love that word?) of more subtle things as I absorb the stuff on a level more like osmosis and let it simmer and bubble and age (since delving into the matter of the expansive potions master, ie Horace Slughorn, I'm really getting into potions imagery.) Anyway, I think Rowling has a lot going on with Draco in book 6. Of course, this is a bit of stating the obvious with his role in Dumbledore's death and everything that is revealed by Moaning Myrtle and his marked change of appearance, which has spawned the "Draco Wolfy-boy" theory and all, but I just wanted to call attention to a few other developments that one might tend to glance over at first read (or at least I did). Dutiful Draco I think that for all of Draco's posturing in the beginning of HBP and in his overheard talk with Snape about "who needs this school stuff" and "Like we need defending against the dark arts" ... he is actually a bit more accomplished than Harry in the rubrics of magic, including DADA. I should emphasize there the rubrics of DADA. Harry's intuitive grasp and habituation in love (not to mention his obviously larger experience against a full dark wizard, ie Voldy) gives him an advantage over Draco. But notice, Rowling again in HBP pointedly notes that Harry never "learned to do occlumency properly," when Snape is reading him for how he learned Sectum Sempra ("He knew what Snape was about to do and he had never learned properly how to stop it" or something to that effect). Now, Dumbledore also, as we know values occlumency, as he has become well practiced at both legilimency and occlumency himself. AND, Snape is a pretty accomplished wizard at both ... BUT, he can't crack Draco's mind ... not only has Aunt Bellatrix been teaching him, but he's been being a good student in applying himself to learning it - if he can keep Snape out (of course, one might argue that Draco is good at it because he is good at being duplicitous and Harry is just too darned honest to be good at it ... but DD is good at it too, and while I think there is that difference between Harry and Draco I think it is more multi-faceted and subtle than that.) Keep in mind too, Draco does manage to produce a hiccouphing potion for Slughorn without the aid of a book like the Prince's. Not a great one probably, but I would bet a bit better than Harry could have done without the prince's book. I think Harry is accomplished too, but he is a little bit more of a wild card in his application than Draco is. Trios I just think it's a really interesting tension she is building up in the characterization difference between Harry and Malfoy. For one I think she has a lot of sympathy for Draco (who has been abused much the same way as Dudley by the Dursleys, a fact which all 3 Dursley's cannot understand when DD says it to them at the beginning of HBP ... and I have noted before the connection I think we are meant to see between Draco and Dudders). But I also think we're meant to begin to see some of Draco's strengths now too ... DD isn't just "buying time" or placating Draco on top of the tower, it really was an accomplishment to mend the cabinet, and really quite cunning to get enemies in under DD's nose. And he isn't just psychologically bullying Draco when he says he's no killer, I think he means it as a real compliment. Granger has done some excellent work on the "trios" in Harry Potter, and I have worked some on Harry, Ron and Hermione as a trio of "psyches" (Biolological Soul and Intellectual Soul united by the Golden Soul). I think that perhaps Dudley, Harry and Draco are another trio that represent the problem of "coming of age," particularly for young men ... coming to grips with what it means to be a man (for other expositions of this theme: on the mythopoeic lines, Joseph Campbell talks about rites of passage in mythopoeic cultures in an interview with PBS journalist Bill Moyer that has been published as a book called The Power of Myth - and on the movie line, I recently watched an interesting film with our friend Nate's family called "Second Hand Lions" starring Robert Duvall and Michael Cain and Haley Joel Osment [the kid from Sixth Sense] that deals with the theme - not a "stellar" film but I liked it) Anyway, just some pondering on characterization.