Anti-Muggleborn prejudice and its real-world analogs

[ericoppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 131502

I personally think that the analogy to the Nazis is a tad overdone in 
this case.  My own theory is that the loathing that people like the 
Malfoys have for "M*dbloods" and Muggles maps more closely to British 
class antagonism---in this case, high-class (Eton/Harrow/Rugby, 
Oxbridge, Guards regiments, etc.) against those who "just aren't up 
to our standards, don't you know."  

To this day, having an accent that's "wrong" for the group you're in 
can be an ordeal---whether you're too "posh-spoken" or too "working-
class."  Children whose accents don't fit in often find it expedient 
to transfer to different schools.  

I acknowledge that this prejudice is not nearly as strong as it used 
to be, but the Wizard World is conservative in many ways---in some 
ways it's medieval, in others, pseudo-Victorian, and in still others 
it echoes the Britain that existed before 1945.  

If you think of Muggleborns as people who're trying to get higher in 
the class system (sort of like the Dursleys, oddly enough; Smeltings 
may be a real social coup for them) a lot of things start making 
sense.  After all, if all that mattered was magical power, nobody 
would dare to sneer at a Hermione Granger (and Draco Malfoy's father 
would be all but pushing his son into her bed.)