Hermione's rude comment

[Wanda Sherratt]

No: HPFGUIDX 74711

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "The Crashing Boar" 
<crashing.boar at n...> wrote:
>>   I do think that this scene may have been meant to help 
illustrate some of the points raised in other parts of the book, 
like how did Umbridge manage to get so many of her petty, 
restrictive and discriminatory laws passed before she came to 
Hogwarts?  Perhaps the biggest fault with it is that it was too 
subtle.
> 
I would like to believe that this is the case, but I don't.  Rowling 
is not a subtle writer.  When she wants us to get a point, she tells 
it to us, often over and over.  When Draco called Hermione a 
mudblood, there was immediate outrage, a brawl, and the discussion 
of the insult went on into the next scene.  When Snape called Lily 
the same, he was immediately shouted down, insulted in turn by Lily, 
and then handed a further beating by James.  If Rowling were trying 
to say something negative about Hermione's character, someone would 
have reacted to her comments about Firenze.  Nobody did.  I think 
that we are giving Rowling more credit for deep thinking than she 
deserves.  It looks to me like she thought of Hermione's remarks as 
a "zinger", putting the other girls in their place, and that was 
it.  It obviously worked for some, but to me, the putdown is 
strangely out of place, given Hermione's background and the themes 
in the books up until now.

Wanda