Hagrid's Prejudice

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 40892

Debbie wrote:

 
> Darrin is right, demonstrating that I still don't have those books 
memorized. 
> <g> I think the only sentence I remembered from this exchange is 
his protest 
> that Harry is "not from a Muggle family!"  I guess for me that set 
the tone 
> of the conversation.  Perhaps I should lighten up on Hagrid a bit.  
I think 
> Darrin is right, though, in that Hagrid makes a clear distinctions 
between 
> those with magical ability and those without.
> 
> Debbie, who like Darrin is pleased to finally have the UK edition 
on her 
> bookshelf
> 

I write:

Not memorized :) I happened to be pretty close to that very chapter 
when this discussion started. I just got my UK editions Friday and I 
was reading PS. 

By the way, my UK edition says nothing about Sirius having vault 712. 
Is that in another book?

Two more Hagridisms that I remember from PS and CoS.

Near the end of PS, when Hagrid is apologizing for giving up the 
secret of Fluffy to Quirrell/Voldemort. "I should be cast out and 
made to live as a Muggle."

Obviously, that's the harshest punishment Hagrid can fathom.

In the beginning of CoS, after Harry arrives safely at Hogwarts after 
being mistreated pretty badly by the Dursleys: "Lousy Muggles, if I'd 
known."

I need to re-read all four books closely, but I THINK that last one 
in the beginning of CoS is Hagrid's last real anti-Muggle comment, 
which, if I'm right, gives me an idea as to where it comes from.

Hagrid basically was forced to be a Squib. He had natural abilities 
as far as working with animals and his size and strength make him 
more powerful than the average Muggle, but he was forbidden to use 
magic except in certain circumstances where he had clear 
instructions. (Bringing baby Harry to the Dursleys and then later 
rescuing him from the Durselys.) He cheated a bit, but living at 
Hogwarts, probably didn't get much chance to do so.

But Hagrid, because of his half-Giant lineage, couldn't fit in the 
Muggle world. 

So, he probably feels inferior to all of the people around him, with 
the possible exception of Filch. But, because he is stronger and does 
know, and is even allowed to use once in a while, magic, he is 
superior, in his eyes, to Muggles.

It strikes me that Hagrid's anti-Muggle rants are his way of 
reinforcing that superiority to stave off the inferiority he must 
feel.

When Hagrid is cleared, allowed to use magic again, and made a 
teacher at Hogwarts, it seems he lets go of some of the harshness 
toward Muggles. 

Darrin
-- Thinks that the slur "Dursleys" should be created to describe 
nasty Muggles.