[HPforGrownups] Re: OoP: Defending Hagrid

[John Hatch]

No: HPFGUIDX 69110

Pippin writes:

Would it be selfish to ask if  the 15 year old Bobby Fisher would 
mind taking on a few of the neighborhood kids at chess? Should 
Mozart have been kept from playing the piano in public? Should 
young Thomas Edison have been kept from tinkering? Should 
Joan of Arc have stayed home and tended her knitting? Harry is a 
genuine prodigy -- the rules are different. 


I respond:

The problem is, Harry usually isn't alone. He's got Ron and Hermione with him. No doubt these three are very, very capable. However, my own reading of the books suggests to me that JKR doesn't intend Hagrid to be a Dumbledore type who sees just how capable Harry is. Instead, he's careless, and time and time again he has let his bizarre obsession with animals put others in harms way. I think most readers, myself included, forgive Hagrid for that because we know he means well. But he is full of flaws that the other students recognize. It's no wonder most prefer Professor Grubbly-Plank to Hagrid.

The beauty of Hagrid is, despite his flaws and the fact that he's basically a big dumb oaf, he is so lovable. His loyalty to Dumbledore makes him especially endearing, and who didn't love seeing him take on all those idiots from the ministry in OoP before he fled?

John

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