Hermione and the Centaurs (was: Marietta and Hermione)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 120893


Salit wrote:
<snip> I think Hermione had to do some very quick thinking under very
> stressfull conditions. As such the idea to use the centaurs was good.
><snip>  Where Hermione messed up is the
> same place where she messed up with the House Elves. While extremely
> intelligent, Hermione lacks the ability to understand and emphasize
> with the mindset and feelings of creatures who signinificantly differ
> from her (e.g. part Humans). Her interaction with the Centaurs was
> what made the situation for them worse. This is where her prejudices
> towards part humans (including the house elves) hurt her - she tries
> to use and manipulate them but does not really understand what makes
> them tick.

Carol responds:
The point we may be missing here is that the Centaurs were even more
prejudiced than Hermione. She merely misunderstood or underestimated
their hatred of human beings. (Pippin is calling it
"xenophobia"--prejudice against outsiders [literally "fear of
foreigners"] but we could also call it "speciesism" if we want to be
politically correct. After all, the Centaurs classify themselves as
Beasts rather than Beings and don't consider themselves part-humans.)
They were willing to severely injure or even kill three human beings,
two of them "foals," because one adult insulted them and one young
person assumed that they would protect her and and another young
person. Hermione's behavior may be foolish and certainly reflects her
inexperience; Umbridge's behavior is unquestionably rude and arrogant;
but the Centaurs' anger is surely excessive and their behavior is brutal. 

I see little difference between the Centaurs who carry off Umbridge
and injure her almost to the point of insanity and the Death Eaters
who toss the Muggles in the air at the QWC. To be sure, the Muggles
are innocent and Umbridge is guilty of injuring Harry and threatening
him with worse injury, but the Centaurs don't know that and wouldn't
care if they did. They are not punishing her for what she did to
Harry; they are punishing her for daring to underestimate their
intelligence. But IMO, if their intelligence arrives at the conclusion
that such an insult merits a painful death, it deserves to be
insulted. The punishment does not fit the crime. The herd here
represents the mob mentality, which is just as bad in Centaurs as in
humans. Their misunderstanding of the humans is at least as great as
the humans' misunderstanding of them, and their violence is out of
proportion to the single spell that Umbridge attempted to cast in
self-defense--especially when they attempt to extend that violence to
Harry and Hermione in response to Hermione's plea to their nonexistent
humanity.

Carol