[HPforGrownups] Re: House Elf Loyalty

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 151657

Magpie:
Which I think means we really can't take it as a metaphor for slavery
because what group of human slaves (as opposed to individuals who
may not
mind it as much as others) want to be slaves in the face of other
people
trying to free them?

a_svirn:
Lots of Russian serfs were not keen to become emancipated. And it is
not entirely unheard of for slaves to cling to their masters'
households rather than embrace freedom.


Magpie:
That's very true--I started thinking of plenty of examples once I'd hit 
"send," unfortunately.:-)  I don't think it's outside of human nature at all 
to embrace slavery in many forms.  The thing that I think we can probably 
all agree on is that it's wrong from the wizard's pov--they shouldn't feel 
that they have the right to own another sentient being.  The house elves 
aren't human, so we can't assume they're like any particular creature in 
folklore any more than we can decide they're like serfs.

The difficulties arise when the House Elves don't follow the straight path 
of logic that Hermione and Dumbledore follow.  Perhaps one problem is that 
it's never been approached as a dialogue about how wizards don't feel 
comfortable owning house elves as slaves. Perhaps if it were put to them 
that way it would pose the same kind of problem we face from the other 
direction: you want to free them as slaves, but they want to be slaves, so 
you can't free them without imposing your will on them.  Similarly, if the 
house elves want to serve and do what people want, and the people don't want 
to own them as slaves, they can't do what people want without accepting 
freedom.  If everybody got down to that basic problem, maybe they could 
compromise in a way that worked for everyone.

-m