[HPforGrownups] Much Ado About Money (concerning the Weasleys)

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 59523

Chiming in late, once again, responding to days-old posts --

Eric Oppen wrote:

> My own take is that while Ron could have handled the
> situation better, Molly and Arthur are a long way from being free of fault.
> 
> Firstly, the Weasley parents don't seem to have their heads on quite
> straight as regards money.  When you've got four kids in boarding school,
> and books to buy for them for five years into the future, spending a
> windfall on a trip to Egypt strikes me as slightly insane.  Far better
> IMNSHO to have put that money into a "Weasley Children School Fund" and
> budgeted it for new robes, books and so on---and _then_ seen if the family
> finances would stretch as far as a trip to Egypt for all.  

This is always such a contentious issue whenever it comes up on the list.  I suspect it's because money priorities are so closely related to one's core values.  Putting the prize money into an educational fund is obviously a good thing to do with the money.  Taking the family on a special trip is also a good thing.  Choosing between them can be difficult.  JKR chose to have the Weasleys take the trip, which tells us something about *which* value goes at the top of the Weasleys' list. It's just another way for JKR to remind us that the Weasleys -- even Percy -- put their family first.  Having grown up in a family where everything was secondhand and the public schools were always good enough, but the family vacation was sacrosanct, the Weasleys' choice seems natural to me.  

> One of my learned colleagues here, I disremember who, said that Ron seems to
> be obsessed with money, and that he's the only Weasley who is.  I'd like to
> point out that Ron is also the Weasley who gets by far the most "screen
> time," and that the Twins certainly seem to be interested in money---one
> recurring leitmotif in _GoF_ turns out to be their attempts to get Ludo
> Bagman to pay up on the gambling debt he ran up to them.  We hardly _see_
> Charlie, Bill or Percy enough to know how they feel, but Percy's slightly
> obsessive desire to please his bosses might come from a fierce determination
> to keep his job and be making money.

And Fred Waldrop added:

As for it being a lesson, I can not see any lesson except that his 
mother does not care what her son looks like. And as for "dealing 
with what you have", wouldn't it make more sense to show him how to 
fix something that isn't right instead of just trying to use it like 
it is? 

Me (Debbie):

I think Molly's actions in the dress robes scene reflects her own sensitivity about the family poverty.  While I think she's on board with Arthur's favoring principles over promotion at the Ministry, seeing Ron's distress about the lace robes in comparison to what Harry's money can buy is very painful to her.  The point at which she is said to have flushed is when she has to explain to Ron why his robes aren't like Harry's.  At that point she reacts by making a quick exit.  Thus, perhaps her own feelings prevent her from telling Ron how he can fix the robes at that time.  However, we don't know that Molly didn't owl Ron later with instructions on how to fix it, and Ron didn't do anything about it until the last minute.

In any event, Molly's failure to fix Ron's robes for him also helps to set up the Yule Ball scene.  The matter of the embarrassing dress robes, and the hastily executed Severing Charm, puts Ron in a bad mood before he ever leaves Gryffindor Tower.  His behavior later that evening was awful, but his preexisting mood makes it more understandable.


Jenny from Ravenclaw wrote:

I also get the feeling that Arthur has made some decisions career-wise 
that might have affected the family's monetary status.  Didn't Molly 
mention that Arthur could have been promoted at the MoM if he had 
professed different beliefs about Muggles?  Arthur Weasley reminds me 
of the kind of person who is well-educated and has every opportunity 
out there, but chooses to be a social worker (or *ahem* a NYC teacher) 
instead of a stock broker.  He seems to enjoy his job, and never 
complains about having to work overtime.


Me (Debbie):

I've wondered before why Molly pushes her sons toward Ministry jobs when Arthur's Ministry job is barely enough to support the family.   There is some sense on this list that it's evidence of Molly's ambition and consequent frustration with Arthur's failure to advance.  However, Molly's objective for her children is not simply for them to become financially successful.  If that was the case, she'd be thrilled with Fred and George's budding business enterprise.  Perhaps she's pushing her children toward positions of honor in the WW.  

On the other hand, maybe she wants them to go into the Ministry as reformers.  .  Part of that might be an effort to change the prevailing attitude over there (to which Dumbledore alludes in The Parting of the Ways) that favors purebloods.  We know Percy has ideas about reforming the Ministry.  And Arthur, in spite of his lowly position in an obscure office, seems to be important at the Ministry, because first, he seems to have worked hard to develop relationships with Ministry officials in other departments (even if some of it is by helping those people do an end run around the rules) and he's willing to throw himself into the thick of things.  Getting a few more activist Weasleys into the Ministry might, in Molly's mind, make a difference.
> 
Jenny again:

Ron needs to find a way to be more content with who he 
is, or to find a way out of poverty, instead of wallowing, as he now 
prone to do.  As nice as it would be for Ron to have the spotlight 
(he certainly enjoyed it in PoA and GoF when he was in it), it is an 
unlikely scenario for him in the long-run and permanently, IMO.  
Besides, who says he can't do great things quietly?

Me (Debbie):

You've hit on what I think is a major theme that JKR is exploring in different ways with all of the major student characters.  As with any "coming of age" novel, the characters need to come to grips with who *they* are.  That includes dealing with and accepting their own circumstances and family or working to forge a new identity.  Unlike Harry and Neville, for example, it seems that Ron should be better off with his large supportive family.  However, the Weasley family story doesn't add up -- they're a prominent pureblood family, the kind the Ministry seems to be so fond of, and yet they're poor and his dad has a dead-end job, with no explanation why.  Ron's apparent indifference toward his studies is, I think, in part his way of dealing with this issue.  He's expected to succeed, but doesn't know what the point of his success would be.  Expressing frustration with his poverty is another way of dealing with this seeming contradiction, just like wanting to be noticed is a way of dealing with his position as a younger child whose older siblings have done it all before him.  

Eric:

> I think that in _OoP_ we might well get some more background on the
> Weasleys, including maybe why they're so poor.

I'll cast my vote for Imperius!Arthur, perhaps with a dash of Auror!Arthur the Muggle-lover, being forced by Lucius Malfoy to torture muggles while feeling "a vague untraceable happiness," now acquitted but shunted off to an office that deals with enchanted artifacts that play tricks on Muggles.  I like the irony.   Oh, and let's throw in a helping of Filicide!Arthur for good measure. ;-}

Debbie
who always wears her C.R.A.B. badge proudly

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]