Neville's Parents

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 156593

Laura with kids wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/156208>:

<< Does anyone else want those gum wrappers that Neville's Mom gives
him to be a clue to helping them get well? Or give some other Order
members a message? I know gum wrappers are all over JKR's desk, but
the sheer volume of them in the book makes me want to think they are
important. >>

Emerson and Melissa's interview with Rowling, archived at
http://www.mugglenet.com/jkrinterview3.shtml and other places, includes:

<<MA: Our next winner question is from Delaney Monaghan, who is six
years old, via her mother, Vanessa Monaghan. They're from Canberra,
Australia. "What is the significance, if any of the gum wrappers that
Mrs. Longbottom keeps giving Neville?"

ES: Quick, go on the record [with what you think] before she answers -

MA: I think they're a sad mark of an insane woman.

JKR: That was also asked of me this morning. That idea was one of the
very few that was inspired by a real event. I was told what, to me,
was a very sad story by someone I know about their elderly mother who
had Alzheimer's, and the elderly mother was in a closed ward. She was
very severely demented and no longer recognized her son, but he went
faithfully to visit her twice a week, and he used to take her sweets.
That was their point of connection; she had a sweet tooth. She
recognized him as the sweet-giver. That was very poignant to me. So I
embroidered the story. Neville gives his mother what she wants, and
(it makes me sad to think of it) she wants to give something back to
him, but what she gives back to him is essentially worthless. But he
still takes it as worth something because she's trying to give, so it
does mean something, in emotional terms.

But, the theories on the sweet wrappers, are really out there.

ES: You can't blame them.

JKR: I mean she's not trying to pass him secret messages.

MA: She's not really sane -

JKR: No. You're right. But that's a classic example of, "Let's just
shut that one down," because it doesn't really lead anywhere very
interesting even if they're wrong.

MA: It's probably one of the most touching moments in the books.

JKR: I think it is important as a character moment.>>

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