Dursley's bribed?, charmed? or afraid?

[Tom Wall <thomasmwall@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50796

Tanya writes:
I think if Vernon owned the company, 
Rowling would have been more specific. 
Personally, I think the reason she mentions 
the title 'Director' at all at this point is to 
show that Vernon has got a promotion. She 
seems to be showing the Dursley's gradually 
moving up in the world throughout the series.


I reply:
I have to respectfully disagree with your 
respectful disagreement:

"Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called
Grunnings, which made drills." (PS/SS 1)

I don't know if any mentions of promotions have
been made in the subsequent books, but we know he's
the director of Grunnings before we've even met
Harry.

Tanya writes:
I also agree that Dursley lives like somebody 
in a top management position, not a CEO. <snip>

Companies that manufacture industrial drills 
aren't small privately held operations. They 
are multi-billion dollar corporations, the 
owners/presidents/CEO's of which don't live in 
quaint little houses in the suburbs but instead 
own numerous large estates, acres upon acres of 
land, investment properties, vacation homes etc. etc. etc. 


I respond:
Well, let's start with the fact that they spoil Dudley
so much.

"Thirty-nine, sweetums." [Petunia to Dudley, re:
quantity of Dudley's birthday gifts] (PS/SS 21)

"...Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap
the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control
airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. He
was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when..."
(PS/SS 22)

You know, I don't think that myself and my two siblings
COMBINED ever got 38 birthday presents in a year, never 
mind the quality of the ones he IS getting. The 
quantity of gifts alone is incredible, but can you 
imagine how MUCH they spent to get him all of that 
stuff?

"The Dursleys had everything they ever wanted." (PS/SS 1)

This does not imply a poor family. It doesn't even imply
a middle class family.

And, since the Dursleys live in a suburb, it would be
fairly preposterous for them to have acres of land,
although we do learn in CoS that "[the Dursley's will]
be shopping for a vacation home in Majorca this 
time tomorrow." (CoS 7)

I would speculate that the evidence is to the effect that
the Dursleys are EXTREMELY well off, which is what makes
their terrible treatment of Harry so, well, terrible.
The only reason they're not doing better is because
they spend so much of their money on Dudley.

And since they spoil Dudley so much, since they can 
speculate about purchasing a vacation home in 
Majorca if ONE deal goes through, since they can 
send Dudley to an expensive private school, and since
Uncle Vernon is even able to take the whole family to 
a deserted rocky island hotel in order to avoid the 
letters from Hogwarts (which means he had to not be
at work for that time), he must definitely be a top
man.

And regarding his position as owner, it's highly possible
that he's an owner. Name has nothing to do with it.

Ray Kroc was the owner of McDonalds.

Although I concur that if he was the owner, JKR would
have said so.

-Tom