Abuse (was FAT)

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 20438

Susan wrote:
> The Dursleys were abusive, allowing Harry to be beat up by Dudley 
and 
> his friends, hitting him from time to time, locking him in a 
> cupboard, never celebrating his birthday, never taking him on an 
> outing, and using him as the family scapegoat. Any child who must 
go 
> to school with his glasses broken all the time is not in a good 
home.
> 
> Did he have a bed locked in the cupboard? 

Yep.  The cupboard =was= his bedroom.  He wasn't locked in all the 
time, but being locked in appears to have been a regular punishment 
(PS/SS, after the zoo).

While you're listing Harry Abuse, don't forget being threatened with 
having the stuffing knocked out of him (PA), being locked in his 
bedroom without adequate food (CS), being deprived of any information 
about or pictures of his parents (geez, most literary orphans at 
least have a locket portrait) (PS/SS), being beaten with a stick and  
trapped up a tree for several hours (PA; those are both Marge, but V 
& P permitted it), being denied his own mail (PS/SS), not having 
clothes that fit (PA, GF), being called only "you" and "boy" except 
when they're trying to bribe him, being allowed to think he's crazy 
rather than knowing the truth about who he is (PS/SS), and being 
forced to diet even though he's 14 years old and underweight (GF).  
I'm sure I've left a few things out.

One of the saddest lines in all of the books is "and he would be 
spending his birthday pretending not to exist," CS 1.  Maybe it's one 
reason I stuck with CS despite the looksism-related irritations of 
that first chapter. 

Amy Z