Day 4 : Sunday, June 26th, 2011
Current Book : Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, page 78
Total pages read : 728 out of 4100 (18% completed)
Didn't read as much today! Too much stuff going on lol. But still, I finished Chamber of Secrets and started Prisoner of Azkaban. The part in PoA that really got me excited was when Harry was given 2 weeks to stay in the Leaky Cauldron to explore and wander around Diagon Alley. He kept talking about how much better aquinted he was becoming with the area, and when Ron and Hermione come to shop he's able to recommend places for them to go. This just got me a bit excited for the college atmosphere of being able to go out and have fun in the city your college is in and really make that a new home for yourself.
At the end of the book when Harry and Dumbledore have their annual "let's-talk-about you-and-Voldemort" meeting, one snippet of conversation stuck out to me. ""Voldemort put a bit of himself in me?" Harry said, thunderstruck. "It certainly seems so."" Of course, this seems obvious to me now, but back then we didn't think it was so literal! Not only did Voldemort put a bit of himself (Parseltongue, some of his powers, etc) in Harry, he inadvertently inserted a bit of his soul! But it's funny how Harry just says it so literally so that we can get a better idea. I wonder how much Dumbledore knows at this point. Do you think he has an inkling yet?
And then a little bit later, Dumbledore explains "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." Michelle put this in her graduation speech last year, and it's perfect! There are plenty of truly talented people out there who just squander their abilities. It's all about harnessing your different gifts and talents and using them to make the world a better place. Makes me think about Voldemort. He had all of this potential and these fantastic gifts, but his choices steered him away from being good. It makes you wonder if he was born like this, or if his environment (the potentially toxic environment of the orphanage) made him the way he was?
Didn't read as many pages as I should've today, gotta catch up! Only 3,372 pages to go!
1 comment:
I think Dumbledore probably has an inkling... In the 6th one, I think he says he started to suspect Horcruxes as soon as he saw the diary. So he might have suspected about Harry at that point.
Also, I love what you say about Voldemort and the choices thing. But as far as nature-nurture goes...you could argue one way or another, but neither of them makes him what he is -- it's his *choices*, and that's Dumbledore's point here. Harry had a pretty crappy upbringing too. I guess Harry had the advantage as far as nature went, being descended from kind people as opposed to Salazar Slytherin and the unpleasant Gaunts. But Dumbledore's point is that his nature and environment didn't make him or force him to be evil or power-hungry; he freely chose to be evil and to seek power, and *that's* what makes him who he is. I don't think Jo wants us to pity Voldemort -- she certainly humanizes him in the 6th book, but her point is that Voldy took what he was given and freely chose to do bad, while Harry chose to do good.
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