More on Dursleys

[Trisha Masen]

No: HPFGUIDX 56286

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "darrin_burnett" 
<bard7696 at a...> wrote:
> Something that just hit me as I was re-reading the beginning of 
PS/SS 
> to doublecheck another tidbit.
> 
> Why on earth did the Durseleys take Harry in? Why not just ship him 
> off to an orphanage, or call the proper authorities, pretend you 
have 
> no clue who the kid is, and send him into the system.
and later...
> Why did Dumbledore allow the abuse, emotional and physical, of 
Harry 
> to continue? 
and later... 
> And the Dursleys are just too earthy a people not to raise their 
> hands to Harry.
> 
> As has been pointed out, it's damned lucky Harry didn't grow up to 
be 
> a serial killer, being locked in a cupboard for 10 years and made 
to 
> be a slave. Dumbledore, to my way of thinking, took an awful 
chance, 
> letting that continue.
and later..
> And lastly, I don't believe for a second that the Dursleys have 
done 
> Dudley any favors. 

--- Elisabeth replied:
>Whoa!  I like to think of Rowling's description of Harry's life with 
the Dursleys as being as fantastical as his life at Hogwarts, but 
without the magic.  Clearly, penning a child into a cupboard, feeding 
him only bread and cheese, and throwing frying pans at him are all 
horrible forms of child abuse, but these are still children's books.  
My point, and I do have one, is that I don't think that Harry's life 
is meant to be taken seriously in any form--his mistreatment (and 
arguably that of Dudley's) at the hands of Vernon and Petunia are 
exaggerated to be funny--this is, after all, fantasy!! =)> 

Me:
I think you're downplaying the abuse by the Dursleys.  I mean, these are children's books, but they're multi-layered as well.  The target audience may be nine to twelve-year-olds, but adults read them obsessively (I mean, we're on this list, aren't we?).

If anything, I don't think the Dursleys' mistreatment is exaggerated, I think it's downplayed:
(1) If JKR actually wrote a detailed description of the abuse, she'd scare her target audience.
(2) The books are multi-layered and have sucked adults into their clutches.  Therefore, it makes sense that JKR would write about Harry's abuse in such a way that older teens and adults could read the subtext, but the target audience would not be overly frightened.
(3) These books are written from Harry's POV.  I think that in Harry's mind, the Dursleys' abuse is just second nature.  Because he expects it (by now) and the books are from his POV, we read it as run-of-the-mill, so to speak.
(4) Harry's life at Hogwarts is a whole new world for him.  He doesn't usually run comparisons of it to life at the Dursleys, but it does say something that he would rather stay in a place where he can be mocked, ridiculed, and shunned rather than with the Dursleys (GoF at Christmas).
~Trisha Masen~
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