{"id":16,"date":"2007-07-21T22:58:11","date_gmt":"2007-07-21T22:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blogalogue\/2007\/07\/first-third-of-harry-potter.html"},"modified":"2007-07-21T22:58:11","modified_gmt":"2007-07-21T22:58:11","slug":"first-third-of-harry-potter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blogalogue\/2007\/07\/first-third-of-harry-potter.html","title":{"rendered":"A Third of the Way In …"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Orson Scott Card<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Note: This blog post reveals plot points<\/strong> in the first third of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”<\/em>
\nGood people doing bad things \u2014 or rumored to have done them.
\nBad people doing noble things \u2014 or were those people ever really bad?
\nI got the book at eleven this morning, and now, at nine-twenty, I\u2019ve read through page 273. So if you\u2019ve read farther than I have, good for you, and remember that I don\u2019t know all that you know; if you haven\u2019t<\/i> read as far, then I warn you, I intend to speak candidly, and I might tell you more than you wish to hear.
\nThough truth to tell, I know little more than I did when I started reading. Rowling is doling out new information only in small bits. Considering how many horcruxes Voldemort created, she is spending an awful lot of time on collecting a single one of them. It is hard to believe at this point that she can possibly end this volume, let alone the series, in the number of pages she has left.
\nThen again, there\u2019s this I know as a novelist: When you near the end of a massive work, if you\u2019ve done your preparation well enough, then things can happen very rapidly indeed. Without the need to explain things, you can simply let events unfold.
\nAnd now that I think about it, Rowling has done quite a good job, in the first third of this book, of reminding us of the key events of the previous books \u2014 the things we must remember and keep in mind for this<\/i> story to make sense.
\nBut books are not just a process of preparing us for the ending. Every chapter, every scene, should have a purpose in itself. What has<\/i> Rowling put into our memories in the first 273 pages of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”?
\nIf you haven\u2019t read this far, then stop. I\u2019m not reviewing this book to decide whether to recommend it or not. I\u2019m discussing it critically, to talk about its effects. I\u2019m assuming that anyone who reads what I\u2019m writing here has already experienced the first 273 pages. If you haven\u2019t, then behave yourself and stop reading my essay and get back to Rowling\u2019s novel where you belong.
\nIt\u2019s All About Trust<\/strong>
\nHarry thinks he\u2019s searching for the truth, but that isn\u2019t really it at all. He keeps being frustrated because other people speak to him as if he should choose what to believe about Albus Dumbledore. Though he knows that Rita Skeeter\u2019s stories are all half-truths and distortions, he also knows that Skeeter does seek a core of truth in her reporting. Her Quill may write down a souped-up, soap opera version, putting the most scandalous possible spin on everything \u2014 but the thing she\u2019s spinning does have a core of truth.
\nSo Harry feels that he must <\/i> find out the truth about Dumbledore. Why was his younger sister imprisoned by his mother \u2014 or was she? Why would Dumbledore tolerate such a thing \u2014 or did he? Skeeter is accusing Dumbledore of perhaps having something to do with the death of his sister \u2014 did he? Why did Dumbledore fight with his younger brother, who broke Albus\u2019s nose at their sister\u2019s funeral? Why didn\u2019t Dumbledore defend himself magically against the blow?<\/p>\n


\nBut really, are those the questions Harry is most interested in? Because what he actually resents is the way Dumbledore neglected to tell him anything<\/i>. How, Harry thinks, could Dumbledore refrain from telling him that his family lived in the very same street as Harry\u2019s parents \u2014 that Dumbledore\u2019s dead family member are buried near Harry\u2019s own?
\nHere we come to the crux of Harry\u2019s \u201ccuriosity.\u201d He thinks that what he wants is the truth, but what he really wants is a justification for his trust.
\nHe trusted Dumbledore, yet now he realizes the degree to which Dumbledore did not trust him. Certainly not enough to tell Harry things that, in Harry\u2019s opinion, at least, a friend certainly would have told a friend. He knew that Dumbledore was secretive \u2014 but how secretive was he?
\nNotice that Harry is not wondering at all whether Dumbledore is one of the good guys \u2014 that\u2019s not in question, especially in light of how very bad the bad guys are. He feels that he was not trusted by Dumbledore \u2014 and he wonders why Dumbledore could not be candid with him.
\n\u201cWhat was Dumbledore hiding?\u201d is the question he thinks he\u2019s asking, but what he\u2019s really asking is, \u201cWhy couldn\u2019t Dumbledore trust me?\u201d and then the obvious sequitur, \u201cHow can I trust Dumbledore when he withheld so much knowledge from me?\u201d
\nThis is actually a deep theological question, for trust is only a hair\u2019s-breadth away from faith, at least in this practical sense: Faith is an opinion that you trust enough that you act as if it were true. Faith in a person \u2014 or in God \u2014 is belief that is firm enough that you hold nothing back in your allegiance.
\nHarry had<\/i> faith in Dumbledore, but he now wonders if he was right.
\nIt is a religious dilemma rarely put in such terms, in my opinion: God expects us to trust him completely, but our trust in him \u2014 our faith \u2014 is based on shockingly little information. Why should we trust him when he trusts us with so little knowledge?
\nI believe Harry will find out the correct answer: That what Dumbledore requires of him \u2014 what Harry was born to accomplish \u2014 cannot be done if Harry knows everything that Dumbledore knows.
\nOr, in other words, for Harry to accomplish what he must accomplish, he must be acting on partial information only. If he knew all, he would not act as he needs to act.
\nIn other words, partial ignorance is good for him.
\nAnd that is infuriating. It feels arbitrary, controlling. How can Harry make wise choices without complete information?
\nOf course, this is a novel, not a theological treatise. It may become clear that Dumbledore had some other reason for not informing Harry. For one thing, his death may have come at an inopportune moment \u2014 he might have meant to tell Harry more.
\nBut that seems unlikely. Dumbledore knew that the attempt on his life was coming, and that it would come sooner rather than later. He had many hours with Harry during their trip to get the horcrux locket in the cavern; he could have told him far more than he did.
\nSo we can only conclude \u2014 at least, on page 273 I can only conclude \u2014 that Dumbledore told Harry exactly what he wanted him to know, neither more nor less.
\nAnother possibility with Dumbledore is that he simply didn\u2019t know what was relevant, or didn\u2019t know all the things Harry thinks he must have known. Obviously, it is at such a point that any analogy between the Dumbledore-Harry relationship and the God-man relationship breaks down completely: God knows all that which can be known, even if Dumbledore doesn\u2019t.
\n(I quibble on the omniscience of God only to avoid the silly word games, like, \u201cCan God know what is on both sides of a one-sided object?\u201d Just because you can make up paradoxes doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re saying anything intelligent.)
\nBut one thing is certain: For Harry, as for us, it is maddening to have to make key choices based on insufficient information.
\nYet it is God\u2019s opinion, as it seems to have been Dumbledore\u2019s, that we (and Harry) do <\/i> have enough information.
\nIf You Have Ears to Hear<\/strong>
\nOn yet another hand, we must recognize that Dumbledore has sent key information to Harry \u2014 Harry simply doesn\u2019t know enough, hasn\u2019t done enough, hasn\u2019t learned enough \u2014 to be able to understand those messages.
\nThe writing on the snitch, for instance. I still have no idea what it means. And all the circumstances surrounding Dumbledore\u2019s death. Harry is sure he knows that Snape simply murdered Dumbledore, and still has given no thought to believing what Dumbledore always told him: That Snape can be trusted.
\nIf you aren\u2019t going to listen to what God has already told you, why in the world should he tell you any more? Harry is so sure that Dumbledore was wrong about Snape that he may be blinding himself to the real plan by refusing to consider that Dumbledore was right.
\nIsn\u2019t that what so many people do? Second-guessing God\u2019s plain messages? (I think, for instance, of supposed Christians who have the gall to say that what Jesus meant when he told us to love God first, and then our neighbor, was \u2014 somehow \u2014 that we must love ourselves first.)
\nMaybe Dumbledore has already told Harry everything, and Harry just can\u2019t hear it yet. We certainly know that he\u2019s not even trying to hear it, one-third of the way through this book.
\nIn fact, for a third of the volume Harry has been running around in circles, really, accomplishing nothing <\/i> much according to any direct plan.
\nAlmost all that he has actually accomplished that matters <\/i> has been accidental.
\n
\nRevealing Who He Really Is<\/strong>
\nHarry thinks he\u2019s at war with Voldemort, and since that is also Voldemort\u2019s opinion, it is certainly true.
\nBut what if that is not Dumbledore\u2019s entire purpose? Or, rather, perhaps Dumbledore\u2019s preparation of Harry is not what Harry thinks it should be. Perhaps, instead of arming Harry with magic and tricks, or preparing him with tactics and strategies, or giving him great knowledge, Dumbledore\u2019s actual purpose always was to turn Harry into the kind of person who can stand against Voldemort.
\nHarry has been closely tied with Voldemort all his life, and has even been tempted by Voldemort\u2019s rage and ambition. This is precisely what puts him in Voldemort\u2019s power.
\nWhat frees him from Voldemort is something very different. Put simply, it is love.
\nSo while Harry is searching for ways to conduct a war, Dumbledore only cared about ways to fill his life \u2014 and his soul \u2014 with love, for that is what will protect him.
\nThe tools of war are all Voldemort\u2019s \u2014 even to use them is to become so much like Voldemort that even if you somehow defeat him, it won\u2019t matter, because you\u2019ve become so much like him that your victory won\u2019t be that much of an improvement over his.
\nA third of the way into this book, what have we seen Harry do?
\nFirst, he refused to stun an enemy that he knows is innocent, when to stun him would result in his death. This caused great danger to himself and Hagrid by bringing Voldemort to him (though it saved some of his friends who were Voldemort\u2019s earlier targets). But his impulse, however foolish it might be as an act of war, was not foolish at all when it revealed Harry\u2019s character as being so radically different from Voldemort\u2019s.
\nSecond, he decides that he must get out of the Weasleys\u2019 house \u2014 out of everyone\u2019s house, so that he does not draw danger down upon them. Again, even though they insist on protecting him, he must protect them by ceasing to be a target drawing enemy attention down on them.
\nNow we go with him to Sirius\u2019s old house \u2014 Harry\u2019s now \u2014 and he receives a reminder of his mother\u2019s love for him \u2014 and proof of Sirius\u2019s loving connection with him.
\nIn that same sequence, he forces the house-elf Kreacher to tell him \u201cthe truth,\u201d but what he gets, while true enough, is far more important. He learns that Sirius\u2019s brother turned from service to Voldemort out of love and loyalty. Voldemort did not understand that this young man could feel so much love and loyalty to a house-elf that Voldemort\u2019s act of attempted murder could turn the boy from a disciple to an enemy.
\nBut when we have seen how Sirius\u2019s brother gave his own life to defy Voldemort and prove his love to Kreacher, then in the bright shadow of that revelation, what does Harry do?
\nHe takes his third vital action: With Hermione to remind him that house-elves are people \u2014 even as this<\/i> house-elf treats her with contempt \u2014 Harry treats Kreacher differently. Not only is Harry kinder to him (which is the part he consciously does to earn Hermione\u2019s approval), he also comes very close to giving Kreacher an item of clothing, which would set him free.
\nOn impulse, without premeditation, he gives Kreacher a family heirloom of the Black family, which Kreacher treasures. We see the immediate change in Kreacher, as he keeps things clean and cooks better food and stops being so rude and hateful. Following Sirius\u2019s brother\u2019s example, Harry has won the loyalty of this house-elf by a simple act of kindness.
\nBut there is also a change in Harry, one that is not so obvious. He had been responding to Kreacher as Kreacher \u201cdeserved.\u201d But when he came to understand more about Kreacher, and pitied him, and treated him with undeserved kindness, Harry became more the kind of person who could stand against Voldemort.
\nHe became more different from Voldemort. Planning for war makes them alike; Harry\u2019s treating people kindly while Voldemort kills casually or for sport makes them opposite.
\nMove ahead to Harry\u2019s fourth \u201clabor,\u201d and there he is in Umbridge\u2019s office. Moody\u2019s eye is attached to the door, and through it (or, rather, through a hole in the door concealed behind it) Umbridge spies on and terrorizes her employees.
\nOn impulse, Harry takes the eye off the door. Partly, he is doing it out of loyalty to Moody, this friend who died for him. But partly he is doing it because the employees in the office hate the eye that watches them. Even though it is a borderline insane thing to do, since it can only call attention to the fact that an intruder has been there, he cannot resist the impulse to liberate people and to be loyal even to the dead.
\nHis plan may be war, but his actions are kindness, protection, generosity.
\nThen comes Harry\u2019s fifth labor \u2014 which, again, is on impulse. Cloaked, he goes into the courtroom where Umbridge is tormenting wizards and falsely accusing them \u2014 as he himself was accused by her, and punished. Once he knows that Umbridge has the locket, his plan<\/i> would have required him to wait for a safe opportunity to get it from her undetected.
\nBut he cannot do it. He knows what horrible things will be done to Umbridge\u2019s victims. So he stuns her, takes the locket, and then (again with Hermione\u2019s reminders and help) gets the muggle-born witches and wizards awaiting trial to flee.
\nHe doesn\u2019t even use them as a distraction to help his own escape. In the best women-and-children-first tradition, he and his friends are the last to go, which costs them much.
\nSo … when I say that after a third of the book, Harry seems barely closer to his objectives \u2014 he has collected exactly one horcrux \u2014 I do not mean that nothing has happened.
\nOn the contrary, I think that Dumbledore\u2019s plan for Harry is working out very well. He has freed the captives, been merciful to the servants, has refused to kill. Five times his deep, loving impulses have trumped his angry, vengeful plans. Five times, he has rejected Voldemort\u2019s way and proven himself \u2014 or made himself \u2014 Voldemort\u2019s opposite.
\nVoldemort\u2019s Achilles Heel<\/strong>
\nThe story of Sirius\u2019s brother serves another purpose besides providing Harry with an example of selfless loyalty and love. It also reminds us of Voldemort\u2019s weakness.
\nWhat supporters did he have that were more loyal to him than the Malfoys? Yet Voldemort has earned their hatred, just as he earned the hatred of Sirius\u2019s brother.
\nHe held the Malfoy parents hostage against Draco\u2019s success in killing Dumbledore. Dumbledore is dead now, but Draco did not do it; still, Voldemort \u201cmercifully\u201d keeps them alive.
\nBut what is he doing to them? He humiliates Lucius by taking his wand (and then getting it destroyed).
\nWorse, though, is the use he is putting Draco to. Since Draco apparently had too much mercy in his soul \u2014 several witnesses saw him hesitate to kill Dumbledore \u2014 Voldemort is using him to torment other people.
\nVoldemort may think he is teaching Draco to be more obedient and braver about his acts of evil. But what I believe he is really doing is turning Draco into his enemy. Dumbledore said it before he died: Draco does not love evil, because he did not know what it really was. Well, now he knows, and loves it less and less.
\nVoldemort\u2019s most evil supporters thrive because he allows them to follow their natural impulses: Umbridge, Bellatrix, and many others would do their hideous actions with or without Voldemort. He rewards them and protects them in acting out their own self-chosen scripts.
\nBut the Malfoys are not like that. Arrogant, cruel bullies they were, convinced of their superiority as purebloods; but they fancied themselves as serving a cause. Voldemort has made it clear that it was no cause they served, it was only him. That is not what they signed on for. Like Sirius\u2019s brother, they have been converted, by Voldemort, into Voldemort\u2019s enemies.
\nThis is the weakness of evil. It devours its own support. When only Umbridge and Bellatrix and their ilk are left, Voldemort can do much harm \u2014 but he will have lost his best people and will be left with only the insane ones.
\nThey fear him, and so they do not act. Yet.
\nBut he has created his own betrayers out of the best of those loyal to him.
\nBack to the House-Elves<\/strong>
\nIn my previous essay, I pointed out how very not-entertaining Hermione\u2019s protest campaign was. All that I said there remains true \u2014 but in this volume we are finally seeing Hermione\u2019s commitment to elf liberation bear fruit.
\nIt turns out to matter in the story after all; the tedious sideshow of previous volumes is now integral to the plot surrounding Kreacher. Even one-third of the way through, it is obvious that more will be made of Kreacher than serving better food and bringing Mundungus to account.
\nI\u2019m glad Rowling is doing this. It goes some way toward redeeming the unpleasant error of the way she handled house-elves in the earlier books.
\nIt Can Happen<\/strong>
\nI also appreciate the way that Rowling is showing how easily a bureaucracy can be turned to evil, just by purging a few people of conscience, placing true believers in key positions, and scaring the careerists into going along so they can keep their jobs.
\nRowling may think she\u2019s making some subtle comment about the Patriot Act and all that, but of course she\u2019s not. What she is doing is explaining how it is that a country like Germany, considered by many to be the acme of Western Civilization, could, under Hitler, give itself over to megalomaniacal war, slavery, and mass-production genocide.
\nEvery group and party in a democracy has the duty to examine itself and see whether it has become the oppressor. The moment when a triumphal ruling group is most sure it is doing Right is the most likely to be the moment when it has finally turned to corner to be an oppressor, a stifler, a smotherer.
\nThe right wing and the left are both prone to the same error: to be so sure they are right and the other guys are not just wrong but bad that, possessing power, they become tyrants and monsters.
\nThere is no one who is so correct that it is impossible for him to don the tyrant\u2019s crown. Indeed, it is certainty of rectitude that almost guarantees it.
\nReading Along<\/strong>
\nI took a break to write this progress report mostly because I had to stop reading. My family is asleep. I need to sleep as well. Tomorrow we\u2019ll go back to reading.
\nWe\u2019re reading the book, by the way, in the most expensive manner possible. We bought the hardcover and the audiobook. When I\u2019m not driving, I read aloud from the book. When I am driving, we listen to Jim Dale read it to us.
\nIt\u2019s worth every penny. Dale does a marvelous job of reading, as just about everyone knows by now. Yet there\u2019s also something exhilarating about letting the words of a story spill from your own mouth.
\nYes, Rowling wrote it \u2014 but when I read it aloud, I am also telling the story. I am, more to the point, performing the story. And the audience, though small, consists of the most important people in my world.
\nReading Harry Potter aloud: I recommend it.
\nNext best choice: having Jim Dale read it to you.
\nBut reading silently to yourself is also nice, and will suffice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Orson Scott Card Editor’s Note: This blog post reveals plot points in the first third of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” Good people doing bad things \u2014 or rumored to have done them. Bad people doing noble things \u2014 or were those people ever really bad? I got the book at eleven this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-end-of-harry-potter"],"yoast_head":"\nA Third of the Way In ... - Blogalogue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blogalogue\/2007\/07\/first-third-of-harry-potter.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Third of the Way In ... - Blogalogue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Orson Scott Card Editor’s Note: This blog post reveals plot points in the first third of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” Good people doing bad things \u2014 or rumored to have done them. 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