House Elves & Hermione

[rainy_lilac at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 14728

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., naama_gat at h... wrote:


It's true that "inherent" arguments were made about 
> human "races" with obvious political purposes, but we're talking 
> about an imaginary world and an imaginary species. It seems to me 
> that, according to the books, house elves do have an innate tendency 
> to serve human beings (after all, they are HOUSE elves, and houses 
> are human habitats). Since humans do not have a similar tendency to 
> serve elves, I don't see how a relationship of equality can exist...


Although I do believe that JKR is making social commentary here, here 
is a little bit of folkloric background:

The House Elves are based upon the Brownie, a creature that exists in 
folklore. Brownies live in a house and will do all of the work humans 
need to have done, but they wear very dirty and tattered rags and will 
vanish the moment you offer them clothing. In every story I have read 
about Brownies, they are magically bound to do all of the work (and do 
it quickly and easily and are rather boisterous about it) and the 
grateful housewife thinks "Wouldn't it be nice to at least make new 
suits for them to show my thanks!" The Brownies then snatch up the new 
clothing, make some triumphant (or rude) cry and run off into the 
night. Rowling said in a  recent interview that she thought it would 
be an interesting twist if the house elves considered being given 
clothing to be a kind of disgrace.

I think it is great that JKR can take a traditional story and give it 
a nice social twist. She has done a great job of extending these 
creatures and thinking "Hmmm... So how would some humans react to 
having a house elf and how would the house elves feel about it?"

--Suzanne