HBP is actually a reinforcement of her biggest theme: That it is our choices that make us what we are. Not our genes, not our upbringing, but our choices. I personally think she is selling environmental influences short, but that's just me.
And that makes me think not so much of Snape, but of Wormtail: He could have chosen one way, but he chose another. Why? And will he repent his choice?
Note Rowling's contempt for astrology, as expressed through Firenze and also by her in interviews, IIRC. Why? Because she doesn't want people saying "well, of course Voldemort went bad, he's a Capricorn". She apparently feels that denies the power of choice and free will.
Note how Dumbledore tells Harry that the vaunted Prophecy -- the thing that was given such weight in OoP -- only has meaning because Voldemort thinks it does. Again, Voldemort's own choice -- not "destiny" -- made Harry into his chosen bane. I'd been wondering why JKR spent so much time setting up that red herring in OoP only to smack it down in HBP. Now I understand -- I think.
Note her refusal to give Voldemort what to her might seem the "easy out" of a childhood more difficult than Harry's (while Tom had no parents, he also didn't have the Dursleys, and the orphanage staff did their honest if imperfect best to care for the sprogs, so Harry beats Tom hands down in that department). Hell, Sirius grew up in Pureblood Dark Wizard Central, for all intents and purposes, and he didn't go bad. He never really grew up, but he didn't go bad.
Do I necessarily agree with JKR in all of this? Again, no. But so much of what she's done in the books only makes sense when you look at the prominence she gives to free will over pretty much everything else.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2005-09-29 07:40 pm (UTC)And that makes me think not so much of Snape, but of Wormtail: He could have chosen one way, but he chose another. Why? And will he repent his choice?
Note Rowling's contempt for astrology, as expressed through Firenze and also by her in interviews, IIRC. Why? Because she doesn't want people saying "well, of course Voldemort went bad, he's a Capricorn". She apparently feels that denies the power of choice and free will.
Note how Dumbledore tells Harry that the vaunted Prophecy -- the thing that was given such weight in OoP -- only has meaning because Voldemort thinks it does. Again, Voldemort's own choice -- not "destiny" -- made Harry into his chosen bane. I'd been wondering why JKR spent so much time setting up that red herring in OoP only to smack it down in HBP. Now I understand -- I think.
Note her refusal to give Voldemort what to her might seem the "easy out" of a childhood more difficult than Harry's (while Tom had no parents, he also didn't have the Dursleys, and the orphanage staff did their honest if imperfect best to care for the sprogs, so Harry beats Tom hands down in that department). Hell, Sirius grew up in Pureblood Dark Wizard Central, for all intents and purposes, and he didn't go bad. He never really grew up, but he didn't go bad.
Do I necessarily agree with JKR in all of this? Again, no. But so much of what she's done in the books only makes sense when you look at the prominence she gives to free will over pretty much everything else.