Dursleys More Hatred of Middle Classes Than "Fat" People

[torillgrnhaug]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, ravenclaw775 at a... wrote:
> To me, the Dursleys are more a way of exposing hatred of the middle
classes 
> than dislike of fat people (I don't think anyone would categorize
Fiona Shaw as 
> fat -- granted, she is the only one who might be "redeemed" in
future books 
> and movies).  J. Ro takes every cheap potshot at the middle classes
she can 
> through the Dursleys (and their family and more or less everyone in
their 
> neighborhood).  Certainly there are plenty of things to hate about
the middle class 
> (like lack of class, judgement of others not like them, as if the
wizarding 
> world is any better, the sheer ugliness of the tasteless house,
furniture, 
> photos, etc.), but I can't help but think, at least in America, that
the middle 
> classes pay the brunt of the taxes that let people on the dole sit
in cafes 
> writing children's books.  
> --
> Christine
> 

I don't think the hatred is for the middle classes per se. It's for
the bigotry of the Dursleys, and their fear of everything different
from the ordinary. But I agree that the way fat is described as
repulsive and ridiculous is somewhat disturbing. Rowling said in an
interview that she considered Dudley as much a vicitim of the
Dursley's as Harry - that's nice, Jo, but that attitude is something
you haven't quite been able to translate to your text. OK, the way
they let Dudley overeat is part of the way he is suffering from
neglect in is family - yes he suffers that, his true needs are never
met - but Rowling does nothing to direct not even one little grain of
our sympathy his way. 

Same thing with the lack of good Slytherins - if it really is meant to
be our choices and not our abilities that determine who we are, we
really need to see some good Slytherin sometime soon. I accept that if
ambition is your chief character trait, you may have more temptations
than othters to use the dark arts to get what you want - so maybe it
fits that this house has the majority of bad wizards. But they can't
be all bad, that will be a serious moral flaw to the stories, in my
opinion. 

There is only one reason I can think of that may explain why we
haven't seen any good Slytherin yet, or why there is absolutely
nothing described about Dudley that could earn him some sympathy: the
  stories are written almost exclusively from Harry's point of view. A
boy of 11 will not have reached the level of moral sophistication to
see the nuances we are talking about here. He doesn't relate to
Slytherins in any other way than as rivals - and as for Dudley, hating
him intensly is a necessity for his psychological survival as a kid in
that abusive family. 

But now he is approaching 16, and he should be able to reach beyond
his own limited viewpoint. Perhaps the agonies he suffers in book 5
will mature him, he has seen how even his idealized father could do
mean things, and has himself been unreasonably attacking his own
friends - this is maybe what he needs to learn that the world isn't
cut out in black and white. And that even people he dislikes may have
at least SOME good or redeeming qualities about them. 

At least, this is what I hope will happen in book 6. And then the
Dudley of the films might slim as much as he wants, because the
fatness was never the main point anyway. (And thus miraculously saving
her post to be on topic, after all!!) 

Torill