Official Philip Nel Question #9: House Elves (include...

[jenny_ravenclaw]

No: HPFGUIDX 39210

Debbie wrote a super response to the House Elf questions and added one 
last comment here:

>One last point.  Gwen asked:
  Incidentally, did anyone notice that Winky actually does refer to  
herself in the first person a few times, whereas Dobby never does? Do 
you think this indicates a difference between the two of them, either  
in education or treatment or some other status difference, or is it a 
Flint?>
 
> In CoS, ch. 2, Dobby states, "Sometimes they reminds *me* to do 
extra punishments."  But I think it's a Flint.  Winky's slip-ups may 
not be Flints.  She may be so distraught that she forgets.>

Aha!  I finally have something to say that I don't think has been said 
yet!  Perhaps Dobby refers to himself in the first person because he 
is more aware of his individuality than other elves are.  It is his 
desire to be an individual separated from his masters that gives him 
his freedom, after all, and made him question his situation in the 
first place.  Winky's sole concern is serving the Crouches; she does 
not think about herself.

I am also one who believes quite strongly that the House Elves are 
very much enslaved.  David Frankis brought up an excellent argument 
for this, which was that the elves are very much afraid of Hermione 
and her desire to help free them.  They don't say "Bah!  Get out of 
here, witch!" or laugh at her; they shrink away from both Hermione and 
Dobby and usher the Trio out of the kitchen when Hermione gets up on 
her soap box.  That is an indicator (certainly to me) that they know 
freedom is something to fight for, not brush off, and they are very 
much afraid of how hard it may be to achieve freedom - or to try and 
then *not* to achieve it.

Once again, I must bring up the example of my own students.  In some 
ways, the House Elves are a metaphor for my own students, who lead 
fairly dismal lives and don't do much to change (I teach in a school 
in the Bronx for high school students who have not succeeded in other 
high schools.  Our program is their last chance).  In my Advisory just 
this week, we discussed how they are ridiculed and criticized by their 
friends when they make an effort to go to school every day and not 
hang out in the streets doing nothing.  The ones who succeed are seen 
as a threat to the ones who do not, because the success stories 
remind the ones who stayed behind that they are *not* successful.  
Dobby may be very well seen as a threat to the other House Elves 
because he was freed without dire consquences, has found real paying 
work and is *happy*.  Success is a scary thing to many.

I also think, that, like my students, House Elves are simply afraid of 
change.  Leaving their manors and castles and going out into the world 
and looking for work must be quite overwhelming for them.  It is so 
much easier to stay where they are and do what they are trained to do.  
My students would rather get high every day than study for exams or 
write essays because it is so much easier.  In the South, most slaves 
did not try to run away because, as bad as things were on the 
plantations, it was easier to stay knowing they had a chance to 
survive, than to run away and risk being caught and tortured or caught 
and murdered.  The journey to freedom for them must have seemed almost 
impossible, which is what I think the House Elves think as well.

--jenny from ravenclaw, always a member of S.P.E.W. 
***********************