Dudley

[quigonginger]

No: HPFGUIDX 153708

> Corey wrote 
> << I think you guys are missing some thugs. Dudley and his crew of
> friends. Or more accurately, his gang. I mean come on, if ever there
> was a gang of thugs, it's Dudley and his gang. I mean, look what they
> did to the play park, to other children, and their bodies - they
> smoked, remember? >>

Rita (Catlady):
> I remember being shocked when I first read of their pathetically
> inadequate efforts to be juvenile delinquents (much less gangstas!).
> These are FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD boys we're talking about, and they beat up
> ten-year-olds and throw rocks at cars instead of shooting people in
> drive-bys, vandalize the play park instead of committing armed
> robberies of convenience stores, and smoke cigarettes instead of 
crack
> or crystal. 

Ginger:
Thanks for bringing this up, Rita.  I thought I was the only one who 
thought that Dudders and friends were doing a pretty bad job of being 
Juvies.

When I read it, I thought they just screamed "Wannabe!"  (Side:  For 
those not familiar with American slang, this means that they "wanna 
(want to) be" tough, but really aren't there.  IOW, they think they're 
acting all tough, but aren't really.)

I'm sure for a Los Angelean, they seem even tamer than to a hick kid 
like I was.  When I was growing up (good kids from the wrong side of 
the tracks) we smoked and drank and did light drugs, but we wouldn't 
have done any vandelism.  That would have been wrong.  That was back 
when smoking and drinking were pretty much considered normal adult 
passtimes.  We weren't being "bad", just "adult".  Or so we thought.

Nowadays, of course, we must be PC.  Smoking must be portrayed as bad, 
or the left wing will advance in a wave of fury.  Sex and profanity 
are allowed, even encouraged as normal and free-thinking, but the 
higher power of your choice, if any, forbid that anyone should smoke. 

So where does this leave us in determining what JKR meant for Dudley 
and friends?

According to Harry, they are spending the evenings vandalizing tha 
park, smoking and throwing stones at cars and kids.  We later find out 
that Dudley had beaten up a 10 year old.  

Vandalizing the park:  Definately illegal.  Note that it isn't 
mentioned that they did anything to the neighbours, who might catch 
them.  It seems they stuck to public property.  The victims were the 
general public whose tax monies had to repair the park.  As Harry is 
later sitting on the only swing that Dudley hadn't managed to break, 
I'd say they weren't very quick about fixing things.  Or possibly they 
had been better about it at the beginning of the summer, but had given 
up by the midpoint.

So, under vandalism, we have a light, petty type in a place where they 
were unlikely to be interupted, and less likely to get caught.  
Scatter drills, anyone?  (Ah, the memories.)

It could be worse, but it is definately wrong.

Smoking:  The modern scourge of American civilization.  Is it so in 
England?  Are there laws forbidding it under a certain age?  How 
common is it amongst kids?  Adults?  The last stats I saw for the US 
were that about 1 in 4 or 5 people smoke, and very slightly less for 
kids.  

What about social status?  In the US it is mostly lower 
classes/uneducated folks who smoke.  Is it this way in England?  Where 
do the Dursleys fall in this?  What would be a suburban POV on this 
matter?  

Throwing stones:  Potentially dangerous.  Are they aiming to hit or 
just scare?  It does make a difference, assuming that they have the 
ability to hit their targets should they choose to.  Are they actually 
causing damage or causing fear?  Harry notes that they are "throwing 
stones at" rather than "hitting with stones".  Subtle, but there.  Or 
maybe they are just really bad shots.

So what is JKR's intent here?  Is she portraying them aa wannabes or 
as bad kids?  Is she figuring that kids will see these things as 
really bad, but keeping it light enough that they won't get ideas?  
She could have had them our doing drugs and carrying weapons, but 
would this have been out of place in British suburbia?  

The Dursleys struck me as being really rich and high class, what with 
a 4 bedroom house, a company car and thoughts of buying a vacation 
home.  After reading the opinions of British readers, I now see that 
they are more wannabes themselves.  I have heard that Majorca is a 
very common place to buy a vacation home, and speaks of them as having 
lower aspirations than a truly high class person would have.  

Is the same true with Dudley and his friends?  Are they aiming to be 
baddies with no idea of how to really do it, just as their parents are 
trying to be posh with no idea of how it should be done?  Remember 
Petunia sticking out her pinkie when she drank coffee?  I've heard 
that isn't really proper, just done by people who are trying to be.  
But then what do I know about such things? ;)

So, do we have any British suburbanites out there who care to 
comment?  Would Dudley and friends be considered bad, kind of bad, 
trying to be bad, or a lame attempt at being bad?   How would the 
adults in the neighbourhood feel about them?  How would the kids 
feel?  How do you think JKR thought readers would see them?  Was she 
writing for kids here, or adults?  Or both?

I can only imagine that if Dudley and friends went to London and 
pretended to be bad there, they'd be bug squash.

Any thoughts from cultural insiders?

Ginger, who thought Dudders and the guys were a bunch of sissies.