On the other hand (was Re: Disliked Uncle Vernon)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 92491

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "arrowsmithbt" 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:

Geoff:
> 
> > I agree completely. 
> > 
> > It's fear..... of the neighbours, of being odd, not the sort of 
> > people we invite round for coffee. 
> > 
> > The irony is that,because Harry is treated in the way he is -  
> > wearing Dudley's castoffs, glasses mended with Sellotape, looking 
> > uncared for - that he becomes part of the oddness with which the 
> > Dursleys do not want to be surrounded. They are creating their 
own 
> > banana skins.....


> Kneasy:
> True. They are conformists to the core. 
> Harry turning into a local eyesore is not so much of a problem; 
though
> he does not come up to the standards expected on the streets of a
> genteel surburbia he can  be pigeon-holed by the neighbours into a
> recognisable category - 'rough boy'. The uncontrollable nephew may
> even elicit sympathy for the Dursleys."Such a trial, that boy." And 
he's
> much easier to explain away as a potential tear-away than as a 
budding
> wizard. 

Geoff again:

Yes but it doesn't excuse the way in which they treated him. They 
have turned him into a "local eyesore" and made him a deeply unhappy 
boy to punish him because his parents had the temerity to get 
themselves blown up and the poor Dursleys had to take Harry under 
their wing. 


> Kneasy:

<snip>

> Lots of words have been posted pointing out that the books are
> mostly written from Harry's viewpoint. Fair enough;  no problem.
> Usually, this observation is made when posters want to discuss
> how Sirius or Snape or DD feel about a given situation; again, 
> fair enough. But in the books we see *one* Muggle family
> caught up in the WW through no fault of their own. (Yes, there
> are the Mr & Mrs Granger, but they are quickly whisked away
> after every mention.) Vernon has without doubt been cast as an
> unpleasant part of Harry's existence and we are expected to join
> in the universal condemnation of Vernons behaviour and attitudes.
> But it seems a valid exercise to consider  how the world looks
> from the stand-point of a non-magical person who is used to
> a measure of authority but is reduced to impotence in the face
> of the WW. We may think "Serve him right." I doubt Vernon would. 

Geoff again:

They are only assuming at the start that Harry might show magical 
powers. And why has he shown them before his 11th birthday? Because 
he has done it subconsciously when he is under threat - the haircut, 
the brown jumper with orange bobbles, the boys in the playground, the 
glass vanishing after he was pushed.....

If Vernon and Petunia had had a little more thought, if Vernon's 
actions had been less of a high class pachyderm and more of an 
understanding person, he might have treated Harry on more of an equal 
footing with Dudley. As a result we would have had a Harry who was 
not a waif and stray and Dudley would not have developed into a 
tantrum-throwing, bullying "pig in a wig". Mark you, we might not 
have had such an interesting series of books......   :-)

> > Geoff:

<snip>

> > This doesn't look like saving Harry fom this abhorrent fate. 
Looks a 
> > bit more like the previously mentioned policy of not letting the 
> > neighbours think you are anything bother than a decent, 
respectable, 
> > middle-class suburban estate dweller.
> > 
> 
> Kneasy:
> Maybe, but not necessarily so.
> Once again the conformist speaks, but this time from a sense of 
identity.
> Conformity is the glue that identifies an individual with a society 
or sub-
> group thereof. If you want to belong, you must conform. Vernon very
> much wants to continue in his tight little sociological sub-class, 
without
> it he would be nothing and nobody -  by his own standards. He wishes
> that Harry would conform too, 

<snip>

Geoff:
See my comment previously. Harry might well have conformed under 
those circumstances. His non-conformity is often the result of his 
subconscious protection reflexes kicking in when /someone else/ 
doesn't conform to reasonable behaviour.

Kneasy:
> If Harry goes then
> not only it reflect on Vernon but it will not be good for Harry. 
IMO he
> truly believes this. Otherwise why not let him go? He could wash his
> hands of him without a second thought.

Geoff:
And if it came out that the family had shuffled him off into care? It 
wouldn't help their caring, conformist image.

<snip>

Kneasy:
> Vernon is a worried man. I don't blame him. 
>  
>  
> > 
> > Geoff:
> > ...and in so doing, open Harry to the continued real dangers of 
> > Stonewall High with its bullies who have picked on Harry and 
others 
> > similar throughout their Junior School careers. But, of course, 
he 
> > would doubtless say that a little roughing up at the secondary 
school 
> > would help turn Harry into a real man and not a wimp. After all 
he 
> > does possess the sensitivity of a high class pachyderm. But not 
> > evil...
> > 
> Kneasy:
> Again true. But are they determined to kill Harry at Stonewall High?
> Anyway Harry saw S.H. as a refuge -  Dudders  and his gang weren't 
> going there. 

Geoff:
Only Dudley and Piers Polkiss I think... (PS "The Letters from No 
One" p.28 UK edition). So, many of the other pupils from Harry's 
Junior school would be going and since they were already conditioned 
to picking on him, it would probably have continued. Kill him? Not 
deliberately but there have been two cases in the last few months of 
pupils being killed in playground scuffles in the UK and I know of a 
case involving a boy in a youth club we ran in London 30 years or so 
ago.

On the DVD of COS, there are a series of interviews with members of 
the cast and it is interesting to see what Fiona Shaw, who plays 
Petunia, has to say:

"The extraordinary things about the Dursleys is that they are very 
funny because they are very recognisable social aspirers and full of 
that kind of dogged, low-ceiling imagination which means they can't 
see beyond their material dreams".

The sort who cannot see the human needs of a child put into their 
care who is the recipient of their displeasure as a result. The sort 
who close the door in the faces of folk collecting for Christian Aid.

I wonder if they are also the sort who take everything that is said 
literally and fail completely to see when there is an element of leg-
pulling going on?   :-|