Freedom for House-Elves (Was: Kreacher the Plot Device Elf)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 162211

> a_svirn:
> Sure, he does. If we are told that fair is foul, we know that it's
> anything but fair. If Dobby obeys by his own volition he doesn't
> really obey at all. Obedience requires compulsion.
> 

Pippin:
Really? Then what do we mean by 'disobedience'? If disobedience
is an option, then obedience must be  an option too.

Dobby, and all the other Elves, do have a choice about whether
they obey their masters. What they don't have a choice about is
whether they can escape punishment. Kreacher illustrates this
in an interesting way. He did not leave the house until Sirius
gave him an order, presumably because he didn't wish to have
to punish himself for it. But his bond with Narcissa then gave him
the impetus to defy his master and lie  about where he'd
been, though he had to bandage his fingers for it.

Carol:
Even "little" Grawp, picked on by the others, roars
and pulls up trees for entertainment, beats up his brother (gives new
meaning to "Am I my brother's keeper?"), and can barely string two
mispronounced words together ("Where Hagger?"). I don't know of anyone
who really enjoyed the chapter on the giants or who considers Grawp a
favorite character. Most of us wish he hadn't been brought into the
books and consider him a deus ex machina brought into the plot because
JKR needed someone or something to chase the Centaurs away and
Dumbledore was not available.

Pippin:
Oh, I don't think it's an accident that Dobby and Grawp,  who
are unattractive, hard to like and difficult to understand (Snape!)
have unexpectedly proven themselves to be just as useful and 
loyal to Harry as those we'd prefer to read about. JKR did something
a bit risky. It would have been much more typical of a popular 
entertainment if those noble and attractive centaurs had come to their 
senses and rescued Harry from a crude and brutal Giant. If JKR was 
only interested in entertaining the readers , that's what she'd have 
written, IMO. But she wants us to *think*, IMO, and clearly one of 
the things she wants us to think about is the fact that our sympathies 
often lead us astray. 

I share your opinion of Dobby and Grawp. I'm not intrigued by their
past or concerned about their future. And yet it's because the wizards
can't bring themselves to care about Elves or Giants that Voldemort has
been able to recruit them to his service, or so Dumbledore  believed.

Pippin