Is there anything in the HP world that bothers you?

[Melanie L Ellis]

No: HPFGUIDX 56458

The one thing that bothers me in the HP world is JKR's descriptions of
the Mandrakes in CoS. When they pull up the "seedlings" they are
described as ugly babies. Not creatures, not monsters, just "babies",
albeit ugly ones with green mottled skin. From then on throughout the
book, descriptions of them growing up sound just like children growing up
(acne, getting into each other's pots to fool around, etc.) And then,
they are CUT UP AND STEWED! <shudder> 

I won't go so far as to agree with thecuttingedge.org and try to say that
JKR is trying to inure readers to the idea that abortion and/or genocide
are okay, but I have to admit the overly realistic, human-sounding
descriptions of the mandrakes give me pause. When reading the books with
my kids, I actually changed the wording a bit here and there, and was
quite relieved that the movie made them out to be more like monsters and
glossed over the growing-up descriptions, even though Hagrid did bring
out the line about when their acne had cleared up, they could be chopped
up and stewed to make the potion. My kids are only 7 and 4 right now - if
either one of them decide to re-read the books on their own when they get
older, I will have to sit down and discuss it with them before they read
CoS.

I just don't understand why JKR had to make the Mandrakes seem so *human*
in the story!

Melanie Ellis
Alabama Homeschool Message Board
http://pub77.ezboard.com/balabamahomeschoolmessageboard

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