House Elf Liberation (was: CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 13)

[sophierom]

No: HPFGUIDX 91852

Penny asks:

"2. What do you think about Hermione's attempt to trick the house 
elves into picking up clothing that will set them free? Do you agree 
with Ron that "they should at least see what they're picking up?""

Sophierom:

I think Hermione has clearly become desperate at this point in her 
campaign to secure rights for House Elves.  And, although it pains 
me to agree with Ron, who can often act like an idiot, Hermione's 
hidden clothes plan is wrongheaded.  She's manipulating the House 
Elves, just as other wizards manipulate them.   

This is the problem with Hermione's entire approach to house elf 
liberation; she thinks she knows best.  This criticism has been 
mentioned on the list before, but I would like to modify it 
somewhat.  While Hermione can be patronizing and somewhat obnoxious 
about her S.P.E.W. campaign, I think she gets too much flak (both 
from other characters and members of this list) for pursuing 
something that most wizards (and muggles like us) would rather 
ignore.  Some wizards (Dumbledore, for example) are kind to house 
elves, but they don't appear to take any substantial action to 
change the status quo.  This is okay for the house elves at 
Hogwarts. They probably lead relatively decent lives.  But what 
about house elves like Dobby, who are stuck in horrible homes? More 
importantly, what about the wizarding community? I think JKR has 
shown us, on multiple occasions, how wizards' sense of superiority 
has led to serious fractures within the magical community as a 
whole. Sirius didn't take Kreacher seriously, and the DEs took 
advantage of that.  LV can only beat a divided magical world.

What Hermione needs to do is make fewer hats and spend more time 
learning. Who would ever think Hermione needed to do more studying? 
But as far as I can remember from my readings of the books, Hermione 
knows very little about house elves culture, history, and so forth.  
Maybe if she would spend more time talking to some of the house 
elves. Most of them would probably refuse to talk to her about 
anything substantial, but she's got a great resource in Dobby.  She 
should ask him about his life, what he was taught when he grew up, 
how house elves live, etc.  Then she might have a better idea of how 
to approach a political movement that makes sense within house 
elves' culture.  

No matter how bad her approach, Hermione is the only character so 
far who seems to take this issue seriously, and she'd dead right 
about its importance.  At the end of OotP, in the MoM, there are 
only two creatures from the magical fountain who are left standing: 
the house elf and the goblin.  I think this represents their 
neutrality at this point.  We've seen that the wizarding community 
is divided (hence, the destruction of both the witch and the wizard 
statues).  We've also seen that the centaurs are now divided 
(Firenze has joined Dumbledore, the others have turned their back on 
him).  What the Order needs is to get some allies.  Most of the 
giants have probably allied with LV, or at least they've agreed to 
keep out of the business.  The dementors are clearly on LV's side.  
If the goblins and house elves are simply neutral, this can only 
help LV and hurt Harry.  LV benefits as long as the Order remains an 
isolated group of wizards and witches.  Even now that the Ministry 
has accepted the return of LV, I wouldn't say that the wizarding 
community will be all against LV.  Fear is a powerful weapon, and 
it's one that Dumbledore and Harry will never employ to get wizards 
on their side.  

Okay, I've strayed from the point a bit, sorry.  I guess what I 
really want to say is that until the house elves unite as a group 
(and they can't if they're all serving separate wizard masters), 
they will be effectively neutral.  And until wizards accept the fact 
that house elves are powerful in their own right (and should be 
allowed to use that power), house elves will be neutral. So, it's in 
Harry and Dumbledore's best interest to help Hermione find an 
effective way to get the house elves to serve themselves, not 
separate wizard masters.

Sophierom