Wizarding culture/ attitude to arms

[jferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 43506

MariaJ:"I hope you're right. I feel that by Book 7 what we'll see is a 
realisation that some of the more flagrant injustices in the WW is 
wrong. The House Elfs will be liberated. People like Hagrid and Lupin 
will contribute to the Second Fall of Voldemort and prove that 
outcasts like them can be heroic etc. The kind of changes you're 
talking about though (the Tough, macho wizard mentality isn't a good 
thing, wizards can say sorry, crying is ok and so on) - that's 
changing the whole society at its roots. Changes like that  don't come 
easy and they take time. Generations. Considering wizards  and witches 
live much longer than muggles do, it'll probably take even longer
for the attitudes to die out. I'm not so sure we'll see any of 
*that* by Book 7."

Societies don't turn on a dime - none has virtually overnight.

I suspect what the books do is make us look at our prejudices freshly, 
by changing the objects of the prejudice around. We are so used to - 
and maybe weary of - talking about the many forms of prejudice in our 
world, that changing the prejudice from Wizard against Mudblood or 
Wizard against Giant hits us from a different angle, so to speak.

The other message is one JKR may not have intended - prejudice is the 
dark side of humanity, all humanity. Every ethnic group and almost 
every nation has it, in some form.  

What's great about JKR's writing is that she has made the complexity 
of people accessible to younger readers. It's broader than just 
talking about prejudice.  Her heroes are real people, not plaster 
saints, which may cause some people in our hypersensitive age to 
rethink just what it means to be one of the good guys. 

MariaJ:"Harry uses the Furnunculus curse and George Jelly-Legs (the 
only two jinxes named) on the train at the end of GoF. Both seem to be 
fairly harmless (boils and jelly legs), so is it the fact that they're 
five against three that makes this incident seem much worse than the 
other times Furnunculus and Jelly-Legs are used?"

Does it seem worse to you? Goodness knows I have no sympathy for Draco 
and his muscle boys. They deserve whatever happened to them. JKR 
clearly sympathizes with the Trio and the twins, too. Why? She does 
seem to have no problem with rough justice. I don't, either, but 
that's neither here nor there.