I was one of those people who waited
in line at the midnight release to get the Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallow. I was
also one of those people who raced through reading it because I wanted to know
what happened and did not want anyone to spoil the ending for me. I wanted to find out and be surprised for
myself. And surprised I was. Having read all of the books up to that point
I felt I had a firm opinion and understanding of Rowling’s main characters. The character who my opinion changed most
after reading the last book was Dumbledore.
I think I can relate to Harry thinking that I had known him. Maybe even a little better than Harry did
being a reader looking in form the outside, and being able to see a larger picture
than say a single character like Harry would be able to. But also like Harry after the death of
Dumbledore, time passed and new information came to light and then I started
like Harry questioning if I knew Dumbledore at all.
Just as it is sometime hard to
picture your grandparent a little children I think it even harder to picture Dumbledore
as a child. As readers we have only
known him as the Headmaster of Hogwarts and briefly through flashbacks seen him
as transfiguration professor. I believe
that in the movie Harry Potter and the
Half Blood Prince that Harry Ron and Hermione are sitting in the burrow talking
about how old Dumbledore must be and I think they came to the conclusion of
about 150. So throughout the first 6
books I thought Dumbledore was a great man.
He was wise and stood up for what he believed in even when other were
against him or though him odd. He did
not care what other thought of him as long as he did the right thing. He knew that Harry should grow up in away from
the fame in the wizarding world till he was ready to handle it. He trusted Hagrid and gave him a home and job
when he was kicked out of school. He
gave Dobby and Winky jobs. He did so much more and on top of it all he had a
good sense of humor and quarks that made him in my eyes truly magical. What 150 year old male wizard would be fascinated
with knitting patterns?
But after reading the last book I am
not sure I can see Dumbledore in the same light. Yes I knew he must have had a childhood but I
did not expect it to be as dark as it was.
I remember when I started to read the book I was excited that we were
going to learn more about his past. But
once I started to learn more and more throughout the book the more I was not
sure that I wanted to know. In a way it
tarnished and change the way I saw and thought, and I guess I am selfish to day
I liked the way I thought of him throughout the first 6 books. How could the great old man who fought so adamantly
against Voldemort have once wanted to put muggle in their so called rightful
place (below wizards). The young Dumbledore
care more about his ambitions than his family.
But without such a haunting past
would Dumbledore be what he came to be in the later years of his life. We learn form our past mistake and life
experiences, some more than others. But
the fact that Dumbledore did not let his past bring him down or cause him to
become and angry or power hunger old man says a lot about his character. He is a string and dynamic character that is
who he is because of the past that was shown to readers at the end of the
series. There still are some sing of his
old ambitious self. This can be seen
when he is willing to put Harry life at stake to take down Voldemort (even if
he was almost certain that Harry could come back). The point that I think Rowling was trying to
make showing readers Dumbledore’s childhood was that we cannot always control
the thing that happen in our life (like is sister abuse and his father’s
retaliation). And we cannot always undo
what we have done in the past, but that is what the future is for. The present and the future is ours to change
and become a better person one that we will be proud to be. Rowling shows that even with a dark past we
can become a quark jolly wizard who stand up for what is right.
-Katie Midkiff
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