Ginny's dress, Ron's Attitude (was: Saving Every Sickle)

[serenadust]

No: HPFGUIDX 59518

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Morgan D." 
<morgan_d_yyh at y...> wrote:
> I've been following the thread about the Weasleys and their 
> relationship with money with great interest, and there are two 
> questions I'd like to ask.
year, 
> right? 

<snip stuff about Ginny's robes, etc)

 
> In the same message, Darrin reminded us: 
> > THEN, after Molly leaves, Pidgwigeon gets an owl treat stuck in 
his 
> > beak and Ron vents about, "Everything I own is rubbish."
> > 
> > HELLO! THAT WAS A GIFT, YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE GIT! Sirius GAVE 
Ron 
> > a gift of an owl, saying, "It's my fault he no longer has a rat."
> 
> I remember being taken aback when I first read that passage in 
GoF. 
> Because I was already becoming very fond of Pigwidgeon and because 
> Sirius is my favourite character, but moreover because Ron was 
> calling "rubbish" a present from Sirius *in front of Sirius' 
godson!* 
> I've been wondering if this is a cultural thing, maybe this is not 
> such an appalling faux-pas in England, but I can't help thinking 
of 
> it as a horrible, horrible gesture. 


Hi Morgan D.  I'm not British, but I did live in the UK for 2 years 
in the early 90s, and I can say that IMO as an American, this is a 
major cultural difference.  This isn't to say that I found British 
people rude at all.  It's just that very often, some of them (gross 
generalization coming) tend to express themselves in a style that 
Americans can perceive as quite harsh.  We lived there as part of a 
contigent of Americans who were on a multi-year international 
assignment, and for the first two months many of us were stunned at 
some of the things people said out loud, and the women in particular 
often felt offended.  No harm is meant by it; it's just that many 
British people don't tend to verbally pull their punches in regular 
conversation. It's especially obvious in many of the TV comedies in 
the UK, where there is no such thing as being PC and the jokes can 
be *very* rough to American ears.  From some of JKR's TV interviews, 
I imagine her to be a very direct sort of person, and I think that 
this is reflected in her writing. I don't think that it would ever 
occur to her that Harry would be offended by Ron's referring to Pig 
that way.  Look at how he spoke about Scabbers, whom he dearly loved 
in spite of the disparaging words. 

Morgan continued:
 
> Picture this hypothetical scene: Gryffindor dorm, Christmas 
morning, 
> our heroes open their presents. Harry holds up the newest jumper 
> knitted to him by Molly and mutters, "Everything I own is 
rubbish." 
> Wouldn't Ron feel insulted? *I* can see the smoke coming out his 
> ears, but maybe it's just me. 


I think that this is an entirely different situation.  Even Sirius 
wasn't impressed with Pig, and said so in his letter to Harry.  It's 
not as if he worked hard to *create* Pig <g>. It sounded as if he 
just picked him up on the cheap.


Morgan wrote:

> When later in the book Harry and Ron stopped talking to each 
other, I 
> kept thinking of Ron's attitude in that scene and expecting to see 
it 
> mentioned again, to see Harry throw it at Ron's face in the 
> typical "remember this? remember that?" that erupts when people 
who 
> like each other and tend to overlook each other's faults finally 
lose 
> their patience and explode in a fight. But it never came, not even 
as 
> a passing comment from the narrator.



That's because Harry hasn't been supressing any resentments toward 
Ron at that point. I can't think of a single instance in the first 3 
books where Harry is ever annoyed or offended by anything Ron says 
or does.


Morgan concludes:

> So maybe my reaction was not what JKR had intended to get from her 
> readers when she wrote that scene? Maybe it *is* a cultural thing, 
> and having Ron complaining about a gift from Sirius in front of 
Harry 
> was meant to be endearing? ("Poor Ron, such a bad luck, even his 
new 
> owl is rubbish...") Maybe I was the only one cringing in disgust 
and 
> thinking Ron and Draco have more in common than either of them 
would 
> like to admit?


Well, THAT was a low blow <vbg>! (Sorry, but comparing Ron to that 
miserable Malfoy kid always sets me off.)  All I can say, is that 
any Americans planning to spend time actually living in England had 
better start growing thicker skins, because they will be needed.

I was going to say that, of course, all of the above is JMHO, but 
actually the part about Americans reaction to normal British verbal 
style was observed by just about every other American woman I knew 
while living there.  Most of us got used to it and formed lovely 
friendships, but it was jarring at first. I'd love to hear some 
input from some of our British listmembers.  Are any of you aware of 
this particular "cultural difference"?


Jo Serenadust