An etymology for Kreacher + House Elves

[dcgmck]

No: HPFGUIDX 107321

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "theadimail" <theadimail at y...> 
Adi wrote:
> Hi all,
>   [snip] Kreacher, seems to be merely a different spelling for the 
word 'creature'. Since Kreacher is supposed to be what he is because 
of the (can we call it that?)racial discrimination shown towards him 
by the other wizards. 
> Well, 'creature' seems to be the word that is used when you do not 
> look upon others as well as yourself, when this class of being is 
> upposed to be somehow lower than yours. When you hate somebody for 
> belonging to a certain class, they become 'creatures', don't they?

dcgmck writes:
That fits nicely with JKR's ongoing concerns with social inequality 
and her use of various house elves to reflect the different reactions 
and attitudes of ethnic, cultural, and racial minorities to the idea 
that they are of a lower or lesser class and therefore somehow less 
worthy than others.  

Your observation of Kreacher as a creature also matches the science 
fiction and horror films of the 1950s and 1960s, which film critics 
have posited as being the film metaphor for social outcasts and 
underdogs.  Such creatures as the Swamp Thing, the Hulk, 
Frankenstein, et al are viewed with horror, loathing, fear, and 
occasionally pity.  Come to think of it, pretty much the way Snape 
remembers Lily Evans treating him...

House elves as a group are the servant class, scarcely a step below 
those of muggle families, who are scarcely a step below those of 
mixed blood, who are arguably below those of pure blood in the 
hierarchy that oppresses the minds of inherited privilege.

The Malfoys are obvious gauges of such prejudices, but they simply 
reflect for us in shorthand what so many people in and out of books 
feel in real life.  Hagrid is treated with scorn, circumspect only 
allowed for his size and evident physical strength.  To them he is a 
large, dumb brute, another kind of creature not akin to themselves.

House elves, being smaller, are clearly more abusable, like  buggy 
creatures underfoot.  Aragog is sacrificed to protect the basilisk.  
Dobby is Lucius' personal hackysack.

And yet these beings who represent social lessers that are seen as 
creatures are not without culpability in the perceptions that have 
arisen around and about them:

- Dobby is obsequiously subservient and can't do enough to please.  
He's always bobbing/dobbing around Harry, an elven Creavey.
- Kreacher is similarly obsequious, though he can't do enough to 
displease the last reprobate offspring of his beloved mistress.  He 
is reminiscent of those minorities who cling to the old order, even 
at the expense of their own opportunities.  They 
are "institutionalized", as Red says in "Shawshank Redemption", 
victims of the plantation mentality, as social critics say of those 
content with the old social hierarchy.
- Winky is admittedly maudlin, though when she was in service to the 
Crouch family, she was fiercely loyal.  Now she longs for the 'good 
old days' of her enslavement, like women who resent that feminists 
have thrust them out of the kitchens and homes and into the hard, 
cold, callous working world where money rules instead of love of 
labor.

Still, the Hogwarts kitchen elves as a group perhaps best reflect the 
fact that while many people are content with their lots in life, even 
content to serve, they can be roused to anger by those who think they 
know better, who think they know what's good for "others", which is 
as much an insult as anything Sirius ever says or does to Kreacher.  
At least Sirius is open and honest about his negligence.  Hermione 
thinks she knows better and doesn't see the problem with that, 
despite Winky's tears and the kitchen elves' ire.

Kreacher's a creature?  Sure.  But that's not always the bad thing  
we might think or the only name we put on "others".