In light of the recent craziness spewed forth from one Mel Gibson, it led me to thinking; my crusade with The Worth of Draco Malfoy is to prove not only that Draco isn’t just comic relief for the Harry Potter books, but that he is also worthy of redemption. Mel Gibson isn’t the first star to go on a racist, misogynistic rampage, but is Gibson, as well as the other stars who have acted out of hatred, ignorance, etc., worthy of redemption as well? It would go against my Draco essays to do a 180 and say that Gibson, et al., aren’t worth forgiveness, but I will say that it will be extremely hard for them to get it, just like it would be extremely hard for Draco to get it (even harder for Draco’s dad Lucius, because even though Draco said a lot of hateful things, he still has the alibi that he’s still a kid learning about life. Lucius, being an adult, is supposed to have a better grasp on things, even though adults can be just as blind about situations as children). These people will have to have really learned a lesson (or lessons) and strive extremely hard to make amends, whether the people they’ve accepted will forgive them or not. To further explain what I’m trying to say, here’s a repeat of my earlier essay, “The Worth of Draco Malfoy: Atoning after the war”.
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"Draco the Villain" can't exist after the Voldemort's war
I recently updated this section of my site with a quote from Tom Felton’s music site, Feltbeats.com, which explained in a few short sentences what I tried to convey in a few clumsy paragraphs. Draco Malfoy may be the school bully, but, to quote the website, “his villainy is not by choice, but rather, it is thrust upon him.” Now this sentence explains his bungled mission to kill Dumbledore, but it also explains other aspects of his character and his beliefs. That is to say, his “villainy” embedded in his beliefs aren’t by choice, but rather, they were taught to him by his parents, who were taught by their parents, and so on. The same formula for racism exists in both this world and the real one we live in. People aren’t born as racists; they are made.
What does this mean for Draco in the years after Voldemort’s demise? Well, J.K. Rowling herself said that, with the exception of Voldemort, every character had a chance at redemption. So this can only mean that Draco’s included. What if he acted on his chance at redemption (which, in my heart of hearts, I believe he did after the books ended)? How would the main trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione (Hermione in particular) react? Furthermore, how would fans react? Enter the discussion about how to confront prejudice and (in Draco’s case) seek forgiveness.
Prejudice, in a nutshell, is ignorance against other cultures and other ways of life. It’s also the outward showing of insecurity around said cultures/ways of life. Anything or anyone that is beyond a person’s understanding tends to get marginalized into stereotypical groups. Ignorance is essentially all Draco and his family are guilty of. Once you think of prejudice in that form, it seems a lot easier to overcome.
Draco would have to do some soul-searching in order to live in a post-Voldemort world
Hopefully, Voldemort’s war would have taught Draco and his parents valuable lessons about people and how to treat them. At the very least, the war, culminating with half-blood Harry Potter vanquishing Voldemort, should’ve taught them that everyone is equal and blood has nothing to do with the worth of a person. But along with that, each of them would still have to go through a mental journey in order to fully recognize the extent of ignorance they were allowing themselves to be in. (Hopefully, they would’ve realized that Voldemort-the person they were following to bring about pureblooded supremacy-was a half-blood himself.)
If Draco was to go through such a metamorphosis and feel like he should apologize to Harry, Ron, and especially Hermione, would they accept his apology? Let’s look at a real life example, Elwin Wilson.
Elwin Wilson is a white man in his early seventies who was heavily racist in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. He did horrible, despicable things to black people-throwing cantaloupes at them, beating them up, and stopping a dime store lunch-counter protest and inflicting harm on the group of students leading the protest (one of those being Congressman Jon Lewis).
According to Wilson, the baggage of his actions got heavier and heavier until one day, Wilson’s friend asked Wilson where he would go if he were to die that very moment. Wilson said, “To hell.”
So, he started apologizing to people, one of those people being Lewis. He made his way to Lewis’ Washington, D.C. office, and told him he was sorry. And even though some didn’t accept his apologies as legitimate, Lewis did. “He was very, very sincere, and I think it takes a lot of raw courage to be willing to come forward the way he did,” said Lewis. “I think it will lead to a great deal of healing.”
Lewis (L) and Elwin (R) together
This real-life example is to show that it’s not impossible to atone for past transgressions. Apologizing and finding forgiveness doesn’t mean that the pain will be forgotten, however-in Hermione’s case, the pain of being called a derogatory name for four years might be extreme-but at least some healing would have begun and the rift that had separated Harry, Hermione, and Ron from Draco might start to close. To ask for forgiveness is a brave thing, but to be able to forgive is an even braver thing to do, and I feel that if the trio can conquer a villain like Voldemort, they would have no problems conquering their feelings about Draco.
Next in my analysis of Draco, I’ll tackle the question about whether it is healthy for someone to actually be enamored with Draco as a character. In other words, how many “fans” of Draco’s just like him because of Tom Felton’s attractiveness, the bad-boy mystique/fantasy, or his ability to say some pretty stinging zingers?
References/useful links
League of Punditry article about Elwin Wilson -If someone had to ask me how I would handle the Elwin Wilson situation, this is probably how I would handle it.
“The Ignorance of Prejudice and How to Overcome It” from Associated Content
“How to Confront Your Prejudices and Work Through Them” from eHow.com
BET’s article about Elwin Wilson
The Conflict Resolution Information Source
