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

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 162213

> 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.


Alla:

Hmmmm. I had been thinking about the reasons why I dislike house 
elves ( not even dislike, but terribly annoyed with all of them). 
Oh, and by the way I really really don't dislike Giants - I 
absolutely respect them ( don't care for them much), but totally 
respect as alien race, which is  different, but we cannot be the 
same, right?

So, I read Carol's post and while I found her description of Dobby 
hilarious, I am not sure that I agree that he is portrayed as 
caricature. I read Steve's post, it did not answer my question 
either.

I mean, sure it is hard to understand emotional reaction I am 
having,I mean not hard about Kreacher, but hard enough for me  to 
undestand why I feel that way about Dobby.

And now finally your post comes along. Hehe. I had been awaiting 
something like that, but not quite.

If I understand you correctly, the gist of what you said is that 
most unsympathetic being deserves respect, deserves freedom and most 
unsympathetic being may prove to be your most reliable ally.

Fair enough, as long as we are talking about Kreacher. I am 
intelligent enough to figure out that it is quite likely the lesson 
JKR wants me to learn with him, that no matter how I hate him, he 
still deserves to be free. Agreed, understood, etc. As I said, no 
matter how I feel about him, I understand or I think I understand ( 
I maybe totally wrong) authoritarial intent behind all that.

But we are not talking about Kreacher here, no?

We are talking about Dobby and nowhere in the books did I get the 
impression that Dobby is meant to be portrayed as unsympathetic, 
quite the contrary.

So, what is that about our sympathies leading us astray? I mentioned 
before by the way, that so far my sympathies did not deceive me yet, 
we shall see what happens in book 7 of course.

Grawp - sure, don't care for him at all, don't mind him dropping 
dead, but I don't hate him, so I am not sure whether that can be 
considered pulling the rug either - as in we thought he was evil and 
he was not.

I think your analogy with Snape really falls flat ( to me of course)

Dobby and Grawp are annoying to me, but never ever I regarded them 
as evil, while Snape I surely do.

Oh, and centaurs? Noble? Blinks. I like centaurs, I absolutely do, 
but I am not sure I remember them being noble too often, so I am not 
sure if contrast works either.

Alla, still trying to figure out why she finds Dobby annoying, 
because his speech patterns do not bother her that much.