Moral messages (and Hagrid)

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 128743

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "cat_kind" <cat_kind at y...> 
wrote:
 If gluttony is a sin, why all this wonderful food all around? Ron's 
also quite keen on his dinner if I recall correctly.
> 
> Or is there a technical definition of gluttony beyond eating lots 
that I don't know?


Tonks:

When I say that Dudley represents the sin of gluttony I am not 
talking primary of food. Food is there to enjoy just as other things 
are to enjoy. It is the excesses that make it gluttony. And the main 
point of Dudley representing gluttony isn't his eating, it is 
*everything* that he does. He wants more and more.  37 or whatever 
presents on his birthday aren't enough and he can't be happy with 
what he has. It is the totality of what Dudley represents in the 
story.  Instead of have one or two presents and being happy because 
someone loved him enough to give him something, Dudley can't even be 
happy when he gets more presents than any kid in the whole world 
would ever get!!  Whatever Dudley gets, he wants more, more, more. 
It's "me, me, me". That is the point of Dudley in this story. He is 
a role model of what *not* to be.  And he even takes Harry's own 
Birthday cake, without asking, without any manners, etc.  He is just 
being his gluttonous little self, and zap... he get a tail (by 
JKR).  Now I dare folks to say that there is not some sort of 
symbolism in that,  and deliberately so.  

Tonks_op