Balance of Good and Evil and the Canceling Out Theory

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by Kaitlyn Schmidt

Good and Evil should exist harmoniously, in a balance. Sometimes, like in the first 14 years of Harry’’s life, good conquers for a while, and evil is lying low. However, the evil still exists. And other times, like the years before Harry’’s birth, evil is suppressing the good. But the point is that neither good nor evil can ultimately conquer the other, they will always exist side by side.

The balance of good and evil is like the electrons in atoms; good being protons and evil being electrons. Every atom is trying to reach a stable state. Sometimes it gains or looses electrons, so the atom has a slightly positive or negative charge. However, stability is each atom’s ultimate goal, so sometimes there is more evil in the world, and sometimes there is more good. But, the universe tries to balance itself so there is the same amount of good as there is evil. Things just work best with a neutral force.

In the Prophecy, the Dark Lord represents the ultimate evil, and the One represents the ultimate good. These two forces will constantly oppose each other as well as the harmonious balance of the universe. Like the north and south poles on magnets, they simply can not exist together; it would be unnatural.

But then again, if the One destroys the Dark Lord, then the universe would be left with ultimate good, which is also an unstable situation because there will not be any evil to balance the other side of the equation. And if the Dark Lord destroys the One, then ultimate evil will be left, which isn’’t stable either, because it would be like an atom made up of only electrons with no protons in the nucleus.

So, it isn’’t as simple as “neither can live while the other survives” because One of them can’’t continue to live without the other [i.e. Harry lives and LV (Lord Voldemort) dies leaving good to ultimately conquer, or LV lives and Harry dies letting evil conquer] because then either force of good/evil will dominate in an unnatural way. This (in theory) would throw off the delicate balance of the universe.

Compared to algebra

First: both Harry and LV are the ultimate force of Good/Evil that exist. On a scale of -10 to 10, Harry would be 10, and LV would be -10. Harry would represent the positive/ good force; and LV would be the negative/evil force. Harry being the positive number would not mix with LV, the negative number. So my theory is: Harry and LV will cancel each other out…such as in an algebra problem. 10 + -10 = a neutral force of 0. It would be the perfect solution for balance the universe is struggling to achieve.

Confused?? Sorry–…well anyway, as to how this “canceling out” might happen, I am not sure. Maybe the One does not represent an actual person in flesh, but the good force that resides in a being….and the Dark Lord does not literally mean Tom Riddle (aka LV) but the evil force that is inside him. So maybe there is some way to get rid of the evil force that resides in Tom Riddle and the pure goodness in Harry, without literally killing the body. For example, if the souls combined (in some way) and mixed together, then each Tom and Harry would pass some of their respective traits to each other. The ultimate good and evil of each soul would combine to “cancel out.” I know it sounds far fetched. But just think for a sec….

Maybe, this process of combining souls has already begun. Think… LV can connect with Harry and feel what he’’s thinking. Harry sometimes feels a rush of anger when LV is pissed that he knows isn’t his own furry. And when Harry was in rage at the end of OotP (in his office after the DoM battle) Dumbledore even said that Harry was reminding him of Tom.

See, it does seem like Harry and LV are already combining into one neutral soul. Maybe the process has just started, so it isn’t as noticeable. Harry did seem a lot angrier in OotP. Yes, he is a hormonal teenager who has suffered a lot…–and yes his anger is expected and very understandable, but Dumbledore said that he saw Tom in Harry’’s actions and words. And that in itself, should scare us.

So, in the end, I believe that neither Evil or Good will conquer, but the universe will turn back to a neutral phase. LV and HP, although present in flesh, will be changed forever. But no matter what happens, the odds don’’t look good for our hero.