Why are Dobby and Grawp so annoying?

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 162256

---  "dumbledore11214" <dumbledore11214 at ...> wrote:
>
> > Alla, still trying to figure out why she finds Dobby 
> > annoying, because his speech patterns do not bother
> > her that much.
> >
> 
> Carol responds:
> 
> And here I thought that Steve had figured out the reason
> for your reaction better than I had! Hmmm.
> 
> Alla:
> Right, no, unfortunately he did not at all. ... what 
> Steve said ... that I sympathize with beings who fight 
> for their plight more than those who are not, is not it. 
> ...
> 

bboyminn:

I was trying to explain the underlying psychology that 
would produce the type of reaction you described, and
I still think that is a subliminal part of it, but...

Could it be you find Dobby and Grawp annoying because
THEY ARE! 

I mean Grawp is a big dumb lump that does nothing but
blunder about. He is stupid, clumsy, unaware, and
generally dangerous. 

Dobby's idea of saving Harry is to repeatedly try to
injure him in ways that could certainly lead to his
death. Dobby is fawning, servile, moderately irrational,
and well... like you said annoying.

So, where do we find our sympathy for these characters?
I think it is in their potential evolution; how they 
progress as sentinet beings over the course of the story.

At Dumbledore's funeral we see a very changed Grawp. From
a blind blundering fool, to someone capable of behaving
in public, and more important, someone capable of offering
comfort and solace to his brother. That is quite a change.
That tells me that Grawp is more capable and more likable
than the blundering fool we first met.

Dobby, and warped as he is by the centuries of 
conditioning of his race, he is a rebel. In my own, fan 
fiction I see great things for Dobby. I see him becoming
a sucessful business consultant to Harry. I see him 
becoming a successful business man (with Harry's help of
course). I see him and Winky raising the first generation
of free elves. ...and my fantasies go on....

So, yes in this moment, they are obnoxious characters, 
and if you met them in real life, you would have little 
interest in spending a lot of time with them. Certainly 
in you own life you have met moderately benign people who
you just  couldn't stand to be around. That's just life. 
But can we dream about their potential and hope for their
future, and in a sense, isn't that a mark of caring and 
compassion for them?

I think to some extent we are reacting to these character
exactly the way JKR wanted us to. Do you really think she
expected us to read that chapter about Grawp and go 
'aww... isn`t he cute'? No I think she meant us to be as
horrified and frustrated has Harry, Ron, and Hermione
were. I think stunned disbelief that Hagrid could be 
so stupid is right on the mark. As written in OotP,
Grawp is not suppose to be a sympathetic character, and
I think our sympathy for Hagrids sinks right along with
the Trio's. 

But who Grawp is then, and what he does then, is not who
he will grow to be, and what he will grow to do. (It is
not how we are born, but who we grow to be...)

I think the same is true of Dobby too. Really, having
Dobby around all the time would become very obnoxious
for anyone. He is a friend best taken in small doses
which is exactly what Harry does. I think Harry loves
Dobby, but just like relatives on the holidays, 
...again... best taken in small doses.

So, why do you find them so obnoxious and annoying, 
well it could be because they are. But isn't your own
world filled with obnoxious and annoying people too?
And don't you cope with their existance by limiting
your 'dosage' of them? And don't you hope that one
day they will 'snap out of it'?

Hey...just one man's opinion.

Steve/bboyminn