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

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 161934

> Magpie:
> Sure, they were all basing their characters on something--but the 
question 
> is why would JK Rowling be using that particular view of slaves in 
her books 
> today? She's supposed to be a 21st century author, one of whose 
themes is 
> that Wizards viewing other species as inferior is wrong. So why 
would she 
> feel she needed a race based on 19th century slave stereotypes?

a_svirn:
I don't think we can dismiss it as "something" or some kind of 19th 
century misconception. If you look at the most respectably modern 
studies on slavery you'll see that this sort of thing is considered 
as a crux of the matter, really. Even the titles speak for 
themselves: "Social Death", "Womb of Gold and Iron" just to name the 
most frequently cited. Slavery alienates and dehumanise people, 
reduce them to the sate of an animal and so on. Worse still, it 
makes it impossible for slaves to reproduce socially. It is 
precisely because slavery negates kin all those quasi-kinship 
patterns between slaves and masters emerge. And those twisted 
relationships have been rationalised as "natural" ever since 
Aristotle's "Politics" (or even before). 

So I think it is rather clever of Rowling to give us a perfect 
excuse on a silver platter – slaves who aren't human. And how eager 
are folks to leap to this excuse! Even Harry went from being 
revolted to being noble and thinking of slave-holding in terms 
of "responsibility" in a blink of an eye. 

> a_svirn:
> I don't know about "etc", but the Underground Railroad is a well 
known
> phenomenon. But then, there is an equivalent in the WW, isn't 
there?
> Any elf who fell foul of his or her master can be sure to find a
> shelter at Hogwarts.
> 
> Magpie:
> That's not an equivalent, it's one place that keeps a lot of 
elves. An 
> equivalent would be elves running away to *freedom* because they 
wanted to 
> be free and helped along in secret by other elves and sympathetic 
non-elves.

a_svirn:
OK, it's not equivalent. Bad choice of words. But neither it's just 
a place with lots of elves hanging around. It is a place where a 
slave who wants to be free – like Dobby – can find honest employment 
and encouragement. It is a place where a sacked elf can find a 
shelter, and – again – a chance of honest employment. In fact, all 
three elves we've seen so far found a shelter at Hogwarts. For 
Kreacher also wanted to be free after his own peculiar fashion – he 
wanted to choose his own master. When Kreacher was sent there it was 
a kind of compromise – Harry (at first) didn't want to own Kreacher 
while Kreacher didn't want to be owned by Harry. Had Harry stuck to 
this agreement it would have been a very good temporary solution. 
Unfortunately, the temptation of having absolute power on someone 
else proved too much for him. "Power tends to corrupt; absolute 
power corrupts absolutely".