House Elves and Slavery (Nel Question ## 1 & 2)

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 126522



Debby:
<SNIP>
The statement that Sirius regarded Kreacher "as a servant unworthy of
attention or notice" suggests that in this respect he had absorbed 
the family's own upper-class views.  However, Dumbledore then makes 
the apparently inconsistent statement that Sirius "was kind to house 
elves in general" but that he "had no love for Kreacher, because 
Kreacher was a living reminder of the home Sirius had hated."   
Somehow treating a class of beings as unworthy of attention or 
notice doesn't seem very "kind" to me.  However, it does seem 
consistent with Sirius' general contempt of those he believed to be 
inferior to himself, such as Pettigrew and, for that matter, his own 
family.  In his own words,
"If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he
treats his inferiors, not his equals."


Alla:

I do wonder why you consider  those two statements to be 
inconsistent with each other. I read it as him considering ONE 
particular House Elf to be servant unworthy of attention or notice, 
not the whole class of beings, but that is just my interpretation. 
Accordingly Dumbledore's next statement "kind to House Elves in 
general" makes perfect sense to me. I mean we did not get a chance 
to see  it, but I see no logical contradiction within Dumbledore's 
words. ( Alla tries to not start ranting again on how much she 
dislikes the timing of that speech)
One more thing - I get that JKR tries to get across the message 
about nicer treatment for Kreacher, but again I just dislike him SO 
much.

I do wish that Sirius  treated him better - for safety reasons, but 
I speculate that nothing would have stopped Kreacher from betraying 
the Order.


JMO of course,

Alla