About Neville's parents

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 84256

-> > When Neville's mom approaches him and gives him the Droobles bubble
> > gum wrapper, his grandmother mentions that she's given him 
> thousands,
> > and Neville takes it and puts it in his pocket. Is this just
> > significant that Mrs. Longbottom has lost her mind, or do you think
> > she's trying to say something to Neville? 
> 
> 
> nkittyhawk: yeah... I thought that was a bit... I don't know... 
> disruptive of the scene. Almost as if it had been inserted there 
> *wink wink* for reasons JKR isn't going to reveal until later. Maybe 
> she is trying to say something to us (the readers) as well as Alice 
> saying something to her son. Of course, being crazy and all, it 
> would be a bit difficult to tell him coherently and directly.


I just thought it was touching that his mother was trying to give him
something and that he valued even a gum wrapper enough to keep it (and
many others) because his mother had given it to him--and it shows a
teeny bit of rebellion against his gran that he does so against her
direct orders. It also seems to suggest that Alice associates him with
the little son she had before she lost her mind, so maybe there's some
slight hope for her recovery.(?) My only problem with the scene is how
Alice came by the wrappers in the first place. Surely the healers
aren't giving her Droobles Best Blowing gum, which, if I remember
correctly, can fill a room with gummy bubbles. A challenge even for a
house elf or a cleaning spell.

(The scene is also important, of course, because it introduces Ron and
Hermione to the fate of Neville's parents and makes Harry more aware
of Neville as a person with his own burdens and sorrows. If he's part
of Harry's mental world, he's part of the reader's as well, though of
course we're not obligated to interpret what Harry sees and hears as
Harry does. Neville ceases at that point to be a comic character and
becomes a wholly empathetic one, at least for me.)

Carol