How did Grawp get to be so, well, *huge*? (was Chapter 20, Hagrid's Tale)

[davewitley]

No: HPFGUIDX 102442

Jen Reese asked:

> Jen: Yes. Why, JKR Why?!? I can't read OOTP without skipping over 
> this chapter. I guess the giants are supposed to be another 
example 
> of an oppressd group, but that's covered by the House Elves, 
> Werewolfs, Goblins, Centaurs, etc. I just can't see the point.

This is my take on this question.

I think one of the most fundamental things JKR does with her world 
is undermine it.  Plots of things that have been set up to seem like 
an enduring part of the narrative get to be relativised as the story 
proceeds.

For example, in the first books, Hogwarts is a haven for Harry, 
compared to life at the Dursleys.  By Book 5, that has gone.  
Dumbledore seems all-knowing and able to pull a rabbit out of a hat 
for every occasion.  By POA, Harry is shocked when he realises that 
Dumbledore isn't all-powerful, but nevertheless, he does suggest the 
Time Turner.  By OOP, Dumbledore is disintegrating in his role 
as 'wise mentor'.  Sirius and James get the revisionist treatment, 
and even Hermione is looking shaky around the edges.

One of the characters at the centre of this process is Hagrid.  We 
start with Dumbledore's utterance (at a point in the narrative when 
we would suppose Dumbledore to be pretty well infallible) that 
he 'would trust Hagrid with his life', and from then it's downhill 
all the way, with Dragon eggs, rooster comedy, ineffectual teaching, 
Skrewts, and the whole Grawp episode.

I think Grawp appears as Hagrid's faults writ large.  With Lupin and 
the other characters Jen mentioned, JKR invites us to cut them 
plenty of slack as members of oppressed groups, then she sets us up 
(at the end of GOF) to think of Giants as the next group to be cut 
slack - and then lets us have it between the eyes with the reality 
of Grawp and his fellows.  It's all part of her questioning of the 
boundaries of what it is to be human.

I think of it as a spectrum.  JKR puts a stake in the ground - say, 
werewolves - and asks us "what are the rights of these beings?"  She 
then puts another one in - say, Trolls - "what about this one?"  She 
invites us to say what we think is black, and what is white, and 
then taunts us with ever more delicately refined shades of grey.  
Are Veela sentient?  What about someone who is, say 1/4 Veela?  Do 
you think vampires might be OK?  Yes?  Then how do you deal with a 
group -Centaurs - who refuse to recognise any common ground if you 
do?

To me, the key is questions.  JKR is not really inventing a 
wonderful universe for us to enjoy.  She's inventing a franework for 
posing questions which she then refuses to answer.  The answers are 
for us to work out for ourselves.

It's probably overstating it a little to say that if someone here 
posts something that picks a way through this moral maze, JKR will 
read the post and invent a being that renders that morality 
inadequate.  But only a little, IMO.

To bring it back to Jen's original question: assuming Dumbledore and 
Harry prevail against Voldemort, and have a free hand in building 
the, um, new wizarding world order, what do *you* think is the 
rightful place of giants in that order?  Do they get the vote, for 
example?

David