[HPforGrownups] Re: Is Dudley...slow?

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 117813



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "ericoppen" <technomad at i...> wrote:

> I've sometimes wondered if a lot of Petunia's attitudes couldn't be 
> explained by saying that Dudley's...slow of wit.  What I think is now 
> called a "special-needs child", although the PC authorities may have 
> come up with fresh euphemisms. 



Sherry now:

I don't think he's developmentally disabled or learning disabled in anyway.
Just a spoiled brat, who has never been made to think or problem solve or
any thing else like that.  In fact, when it's important to Dudley, he can be
quite clever.  He's good at manipulating his parents, giving them the
actions and reactions that will gain him the most materially or in sympathy.
He did that from book one, when he pretended to cry in order to try to get
his parents not to bring Harry to the zoo.  He does it in the fifth book, by
making his parents believe he's doing something every evening, when he's
really out beating up small children.  No, I don't think he's slow or
stupid.  I think he simply chooses to use his intelligence for other
purposes than education in school.

Sherry G