Hermione's Hats

[frost_indri]

No: HPFGUIDX 88994


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Kathleen:
> Oop is the first time another character, (Dumbledore), points out 
> that she is right about the house elves. 

Frost:  But he points out that she is right in that they should all 
treat him better, not that all house-elves should be freed.  There 
is a large difference.  Especially since their "enslavement" seems 
to be, for a large part, voluntary.

>I think the point of the 
> hats is not so much a plot device as character development. The 
hats 
> are showing that Hermione is developing a social conscience, which 
> makes her unpopular and pathetic to the other characters. I am 
sure 
> the House Elves will be freed by the end of the books due to her 
> efforts, but she will have to change tactic.

Frost:  The House-elves don't want to be freed.  So they won't be, 
unless they do something so loathsome that the wizards and witches 
almost universally reject them, which is something I don't see 
happening.  
  We find it hard to understand why someone that is intelligent 
would want to be subservient to another, but then we have to 
remember that which Hermione is forgetting.  They aren't human, and 
their value systems are vastly different than ours are.  Dobby is an 
odd one out, but then again, he was also very much abused by 
his "family."  That is enough to make social freaks out of humans, 
and apparently its enough to make them out of house elves as well. 
Of course, Dobby might just have a different basic personality as 
well.  
  The point is, Hermione is failing, and will fail, because she is 
trying to force her own value system on someone else.   If anything, 
the hats would be a learning tool to help her understand that she 
needs to respect other peoples (beings, but I consider them people) 
values and points of view, even if yours disagrees.  
  I think the best outcome we can hope for is elfish protection 
laws, so that absurd, and abusive punishments cannot be used against 
the elves, and other such things.  Something so that the elves can 
be happy.  And who knows, if they aren't forced to be what they 
don't want to be, maybe they'll take a day off too. ^_^

Frost