CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 33 - Fight and Flight

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 119394


> >2. Umbridge's months of arrogance and abuse of power finally meet
their match with the Centaurs.  How satisfied are we with this outcome?

Janet Anderson answered: 
> It's satisfying on one level, but the spectacular departure of Fred
and George (and Umbridge's departure while being chased by Peeves)
were more so, because they were a direct result of her conduct at
Hogwarts -- whereas the centaurs are not responding to any actual
mistreatment but are ready to be hostile to any human they encounter
(see 3 below).
> 
> >3. Hermione's remarks to the centaurs nearly spell doom for her and
Harry. What does this say about her understanding of them?
> 
Janet Anderson answered:
> Not very much, really.  It says that Hermione is tactless and
doesn't always pick up on other people's feelings, but we knew that. 
I think the problem here is that no matter how tactful Hermione or
anyone else was, the centaurs they encountered were hostile, ready to
take offense, and wanted to take out their resentment on someone.  
>From the centaurs' point of view, there was no difference between
Umbridge and Hermione; they were both human and that was all that
mattered -- proof that racism is not restricted to wizards and 
> humans. :( <snip>

Carol responds:
Yes, exactly. The centaurs' treatment of Umbridge is satisfying only
from the primitive standpoint of revenge. She certainly *deserves* to
be trampled underfoot by the centaurs for what she's done to the
students, but she has done nothing worse to the centaurs than insult
them, which really only merits similar insults in return.

What's disturbing to me about the centaurs' behavior is that on the
one hand, it's mob mentality, not much different from the Death
Eater's tossing the Muggles at the TWT. In fact, Umbridge is probably
in far greater danger than the Muggles, who were terrified and
humiliated but probably would not have been dropped (although I could
be wrong about that). What the enraged centaurs did or could do to
Umbridge is best left to the imagination and is out of all proportion
to what she did to *them*.

Also, as Janet points out, the centaurs are ironically expressing a
racist point of view themselves. "Near-human" is an insult in their
view not because they see themselves as equal to humans but because
they see themselves as superior, exactly as the purebloods see
themselves as superior to Muggleborns and wizards in general see
themselves as superior to Muggles, not to mention the superiority in
their view of magical humans to other magical creatures. The centaurs'
contempt for humans, magical or otherwise, exactly parallels the WW
view of centaurs (and house-elves and goblins) expressed in the
fountain in the MoM. Each sees itself as superior to the other and
takes that superiority for granted. And when the mob mentality takes
over, that supposed superiority turns ugly and the centaurs are no
better than the Death Eaters, a point we may miss if we think only
about our hatred and contempt for Umbridge and our desire to see her
punished.

Maybe Hermione was not as wrong as she appears to be, or at least not
for the reasons usually expressed. She had viewed the centaurs as
intelligent, rational, compassionate beings who recognized that
"foals" should not be harmed. In other words, she took them at their
own estimation as being in some ways superior to the humans of her
acquaintance. But her estimation (IIRC) was based on Firenze, who
clearly does not represent the centaurs as a whole. She misjudged them
and misunderstood them, certainly, but she expected them to be less
self-regarding and morally superior to their real selves. Note also
their treatment of Firenze, who is not only banished but kicked in the
chest by Bane (the most fanatical of the group) for daring to
associate with humans. Nasty little blood traitor that it is.

Carol, who certainly is not defending Umbridge but thinks that the
centaurs' conduct is also indefensible