HP and social issues - Lupin

[Joywitch M. Curmudgeon]

No: HPFGUIDX 28988

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Wanda Sherratt" <sherratt at m...> wrote:
> Since I'm new and havent been able to read all the nearly 3,000 
> messages in the archives, I'm sure you've all discussed the way JKR 
> weaves social issues into her books - slavery with the House Elves, 
> racial prejudice (giants) and class prejudice (purebloods and
> others).  I wonder if Lupin is another example of a social issue
> being 
> addressed in a veiled manner - it seems to me that he could be read
> as an example of an AIDS sufferer [snip]

I think that's a very good analogy, Wanda (and welcome to the group). 
We have discussed JKR's use of metaphor and the various social issues 
she seems to be referring to many times, but IIRC no one has 
associated the prejudice against Lupin with AIDS before, only with 
bigotry in general.  I think it's a good parallel, but hard to tell 
if that's what JKR actually intended.

If you ever have several years with nothing to do, you might stroll 
thru our archives (which has not 3000 but close to 30,000 messages) 
and you'll find a lot of speculation about HP and social issues, 
especially WWII parallels and the parallel between muggle-hating and 
racism.

My own pet theory is that the ending of PoA, where Harry can not 
bring himself to kill Sirius or later to let Sirius and Remus kill 
Pettigrew, is JKR's anti-death penalty metaphor.  I wrote a lengthy 
post on it a while back, which could probably be found with Yahoo's 
search function.

--Joywitch M. Curmudgeon