[HPforGrownups] Why I hate Hagrid (was: I Hate Snape...)

Tue Apr 29 00:17:11 UTC 2003

No: HPFGUIDX 56391

Jenny said: 
> Knock it off, you two!  Bonding over your
> support of Hagrid - feh!  
> Pushing me to start slammin' Hagrid again, just
> so you can say how 
> great he is - bah!  I'll just tell you why I
> dislike Hagrid so much, 
> and I'll stand by my dislike even if I am the
> only one of all the 
> 6800+ members of HPFGU to do so.  Here goes:
> 
> Jenny's Top 10 Reasons to Dislike Hagrid:
> 1. He has a big mouth (leaks information to the
> Trio that he shouldn't 
> have in SS and says way too much to Rita
> Skeeter in the interview he 
> knew he shouldn't have done).
> 2. Clearly breaks wizarding laws (uses magic
> when with Harry and 
> harbors a baby dragon in SS).
> 3. Encourages children to be dishonest (asks
> Harry not to mention his 
> use of magic illegally in SS).
> 4. Allows his temper to get the best of him,
> causing damage to others 
> (granted, it is only in relation to Dumbledore,
> but really, did he 
> have to give Dudley a pig's tail?).
> 5. He's a terrible, horrible, awful, inept
> teacher - he'd even be 
> fired from the NYC public school system (where
> I work), and that's 
> quite a feat!
> 6. He cries too much (people are going to hate
> me for that one, but a 
> teacher who openly cries in front of the
> students - that's baaaaad).
> 7. He drinks when his job seems to keep him on
> call all the time.
> 8. He leans too much on the Trio.
> 9. Puts others in danger (remember Norbert?  He
> not only allowed the 
> Trio to help him with the baby dragon, he also
> said nothing to defend 
> them when they got in trouble or injured as a
> result.  He also sent 
> Ron and Harry straight to the monster spiders).
> 10. He has bad taste (remember the horrible
> hairy suit?  Blech).
> 
> So go ahead - let me have it!  Let's get the
> Great Hagrid Debate up 
> and running again.  Darrin, I'm sure you'll
> tear me to bits.
> 
> --jenny from ravenclaw, who, unlike Hagrid, is
> not afraid of who she 
> is and she is someone who does not like Hagrid!

Me:
Gee, can anyone join this debate?  I'm surprised
to see ravenclaw though when it seems like such a
Slytherin answer to me.  ;)  Just kidding.

To take your arguments point by point:

1.  I agree Hagrid has a big mouth.  Of course,
it's his big mouth that gives HRH the clues they
need to figure things out is PS.  So, shouldn't
we feel sorry for Hagrid for being used so
horribly by the author to do this?  

2. Agreed, he clearly does break wizarding laws. 
Then again, when he didn't break the law he was
still accused and convicted of it and later sent
to prison for it.  Seems to me he's damned if he
does and damned if he doesn't here.

3.  I don't agree here.  Hagrid never asks Harry
to lie, just not tell. It's like saying that when
I tell my daughter not to tell Daddy what she got
him as a present, I'm teaching her to be
dishonest.  I have no problem with keeping
secrets as long as no one is getting hurt by them
and personally, I think the magic might have done
Dudley some good. ;)

4.  Totally agree with this point except he was
trying to turn Dudley into a pig and not just
give him a tail.  At least he was trying to be
thorough. ;)

5.  I agree he's a bad teacher but I see that as
the fault of Dumbledore.  Dumbledore knows Hagrid
knows nothing about teaching but is apparently
not giving Hagrid any guidelines or help.  I
would have assumed that there is a regular lesson
plan for this class as there are for the others
and there should be more supervision for a new
teacher, especially one who never finished
school.  I would assume that even in NYC teachers
are supposed to have some kind of training before
they are allowed to teach.

6.  I agree with this as well.  As a teacher,
Hagrid needs to show more restraint.  That being
said, I think it's normal for a person to cry
when a beloved pet is about to die and don't see
a problem with letting kids see that it's okay to
feel grief.  It's the other times I remember
Hagrid crying where I think he needed to show
more restraint after becoming a teacher.  This
though, is something that may come the longer he
is a teacher.  He hadn't needed to show that type
of restraint before then.  He would also have to
pick the right role model.  Snape certainly
wouldn't be a good one since he doesn't show
restraint in how he deals with some students or
how he feels about them.

7.  I don't agree with this.  Now if you said he
drinks too much and is constantly drunk, that
would be different.  While we know Hagrid drinks,
I don't remember one instance when he's been
drunk during classes or when he was needed for
serious work.  For example, in GoF, he's not
drunk when Dumbledore calls for him when Krum is
discovered stunned.  If Hagrid was constantly
drinking, Hagrid should have been drunk by then. 
To say someone can't drink at all because they
are on call 24/7 is a bit unrealistic, not to
mention picky, picky, picky.

8.  This one I don't understand at all.  How is
he leaning on the Trio?  Could you explain this
further?  Seems to me he's really trying to be an
adult friend to them, in the best way he knows
how.

9.  I agree he definitely used bad judgment when
it came to Norbert.  He should have dealt with
that himself rather than let the kids bring the
egg up to the tower.  However, we don't know that
he didn't try to make things right after he heard
they were caught.  Hagrid was certainly quick to
come to Harry's defense in CoS even when he had
to know he would again be under suspicion for the
Chamber opening.  As for the spider, I agree with
Harry that Hagrid thought Aragog would never
allow a friend of his to be harmed, particularly
when that friend was trying to help Hagrid.  In
this instance, I don't believe Hagrid thought he
was putting anyone in danger.  But couldn't we
also say the same of Dumbledore for allowing
students to have detention in the Forbidden
Forest in PS?

10.  Bad taste?  Well, gee, I wonder how many
clothing stores there are around for half-giants?
 It could be either bad taste or that's all that
was available when he needed a suit.  It may also
be that he had to make the suit himself and that
material was all he could find or get.  When I
read the description, I wonder if it's a suit
made of animal skins.  It doesn't appear anyone
ever taught Hagrid much about keeping up his
appearance, but that's such a mother thing to do
and his mother wasn't around.

Now, I'm not a Hagrid fan, to me he's just a
character and I won't weep if he dies like I know
I will for Lupin.  However, I do feel for Hagrid.
 Here's a kid who has grown up knowing that he'll
be hated by people for something he had no
control over, his mother being a giant.  He grows
up without a mother and so loses that type of
nurturing.  He loses the one grounding influence
in his life at the age of 12 when his father
dies.  At 13 he's accused and convicted of a
crime he didn't commit on the say so of someone
else because he wasn't believed when he said he
hadn't done it and neither did his spider.

We don't know how he lived or what kind of adult
influences he had in his life after that but I've
always gotten the impression from Hagrid that
he's emotionally immature in many ways and didn't
have an adult hand in a very tough time in a
young man's life.  Hagrid craves acceptance,
something he doesn't appear to have gotten for
much of his life.  Hagrid is insecure and also
doesn't have a lot of confidence in himself when
it comes to his knowledge of certain things, such
as being able to put together his own defense of
Buckbeak.  Yet, in other ways, Hagrid is very
perceptive and really does care for HRH and at
times has tried to be the adult friend, such as
in PoA when he talks to Harry and Ron about how
they are treating Hermione.  He is also the one
who thinks about rounding up pictures for Harry. 
For all his interest in monsterous things, Hagrid
is a very sensitive soul and it's not surprising
given his early life.

To me, these aren't reasons to hate Hagrid but to
feel sympathy for him.

Lynn
(who really can't blame Hagrid for being afraid
of what people will think of who he is when
people tell him to go drown himself just because
his mother is a giant and blame him for what his
mother may or may not have done)

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