Fred and George: The Bullies You Do Know

[vincentjh]

No: HPFGUIDX 43084

Hi,

I've been a lurker on this board for a while and had just re-joined 
the group after half a month's absence. After reading so many 
messages suggesting the twins are a) potentially evil or b) mean, I 
felt like to defend them.

> Abigail said: 
> 
> > I honestly believe that in most of these cases,
> > JKR's reasoning doesn't go 
> > any further than "this is funny."  This is something
> > of a disservice to the 
> > characters, making them the purveyors of cheap
> > laughs and nothing more, 

and "Nicole L." wrote

> JKR often has a playful tone to her writing and I think
> that this is reflected in Fred and George.  In the
> context of childhood, I can see how these two are
> hilarious.  As a bunch of adults looking at them, we
> may see their behavior as immature and mean but I
> don't think children read them the same way.  
> 
> I think it is important to
> remember that these are children's novels telling the
> story from the point of view of a child.  Naturally as
> adults we will make our own interpretations and draw
> our own conclusions but perhaps we are missing
> something when we do this.  

I agree that sometimes we might take F&G too seriously and miss out 
on JKR's humor. 

It's important to read the characters in HP's context. This is a 
world where kids learn to grind dead spiders to make potions, where a 
not-so-well-excuted spell could accidentally make a person blurp 
slugs, and where people could get serious injuries in our muggle 
standard but recover in one night! Apparently, wizards and witches 
are much stronger (and perhaps less sensitive) than us muggles and 
their definition of "animal crulety" or simply "cruelty" is very 
different from ours. In fact, some people might even read HP's as a 
violent world that merrits an R rating. But then, this "cruelty" is 
part of HP's charm, part of its uninhibited (and occasionally dark) 
imagination. It's for a good laugh and for setting up the tone of a 
different universe. And I am sure kids would have a lot of fun 
reading about those wicked little wizards and witches who do not have 
to comform to our rules.

I do not find F&G particularly crule in their treatments to animals 
or their physically "harming" people (such as turing Neville into 
a...what bird was that?), because these things probably won't hurt a 
wizard or a magical creature. What they did to Dudley might be 
disturbing. But let's not forget that JKR has never been kind to the 
Dursleys. Dudley has been (in his imagination) nearly attacked by a 
snake and has grown a pig tail, and Aunt Marge was turned into a 
human balloon. I'd like to think it's nothing more than another joke 
JKR played on Dudley.

One thing that all the Weasley kids have in common is they are loyal 
and protective to their friends and families. Even Ginny the little 
sister stood up for Harry in her first encounter with Draco. Percy 
bullied Ginny into taking cold medicine and chid F&G for trying to 
cheer her up in the wrong way. He offered Harry advices in what 
classes to take in his 3rd year and has been kind to him since 1st 
year even though Harry didn't always recognise or appreciate it. 
Ron...Need to say anything about him? He'd fight anyone for his 
friends, families, and classmates. 

F&G are from the same family that raised these kids to always look 
after each other and offer people their support. Much like Ron, they 
taught Harry numerous things about the magic world and always treated 
him like a normal kid, making things easy for him even when times 
were hard. They defended their teammates. They made fun of Percy but 
also insisted that he had to sit with them on Christmas and did not 
try to embarrass him in important occasions and ruin his life or 
career. (If they didn't care for Percy, I doubt they'd ever find so 
many things to tease him.) These are two teenage boys that may never 
admit they can be warm and sensitive. But time and time again, they 
have shown their caring side to Harry and their 
families/friends/teammates. And I, for one, found it difficult to see 
them as bullies or potential dark wizards. 

> > Look at Cedric
> > - he's older than the twins, 
> > he's handsome, smart, popular, good with the girls,
> > a great Quidditch player, 
> > and on top of all that he's nice, modest and
> > friendly.  How could they not 
> > hate him?  Can you honestly tell me that you've
> > never met a person like that 
> > and just hated them?

Am I the only one who feels that Cedric is a little too perfect? 
Maybe JKR deliberatedly made him that way so that the readers would 
feel sad (adn angered) when he was killed off. But I found him one of 
the most inconvincible characters in the book(s).

VJH