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

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 162108

---  "dumbledore11214" <dumbledore11214 at ...> wrote:

> 
> Alla:
> 
> ...
> 
> It is funny when I think about house elves. As I said
> I totally think that their situation is slavery, etc,
> but I just cannot bring myself to empathize fully with
> them as characters. Strange.
> 
> ...
> 
> I think I mentioned it in the past that I totally 
> sympathise with werewolves ..., I find centaurs to be
> totally cool and I so want to know more about goblins 
> and find their rebellions mentioned in passing to be 
> much more sympathetic than house elves plight.
> 
> I can find no other reasons that JKR not making me feel
> for these three elves as characters.
> 
> Alla.
>

bboyminn:

Well, I don't I will add much, but a very interesting
thought came to me as I read your post.

I noticed that you are sympathetic toward beings who
struggle to assert themselves and their independance
in life, and are unsympathetic to those who do not.
Those willing to STRUGGLE being the key.

Certainly werewolves are struggling against society in
an effort to establish a fair place for themselves. 
Lupin chooses one method, and apparently a great many
werewolves of the /Greyback/ ilk choose another. None
the less, each is struggling in his own way against 
the oppression and prejudic of wizards.

Goblins certainly do not 'roll over and play dead' 
for anyone. Even when they have been afforded some 
rights after their many rebellions, they still seem
to take great joy in throwing a monkey wrench into
the works of everything the Wizard Government tries
to do. They are successful economically, but their 
struggle is to reject the idea that Wizards have any
authority over them, and that Wizards have any 
authority over any other creatures.

Centaur struggle is similar to the Goblins, they 
absolutely deny that the wizards are in charge of every
one and every thing. They are struggling to assert their
independance and free will, and to assert that they 
are outside the authority of Wizards. To them, Wizards
arrogant claim of authority is like Britain claiming
authority over France, because those French are such 
inferior beings. Too hung up on wine and cheeze to 
take the time to properly govern themselves. (Again,
the Britain/France thing is just an analogy to 
Centaurs and Wizards.) Centaurs are not the play
things of wizards, neither the economic, social, 
or political play things. 

Now, let us look at the unsympathetic characters, Elves
are not doing anything to assert themselves, or their 
collective wants and needs, nor to assert their free will
and independance. They seem content with their lot in
life. Keep in mind that Dobby did not actively try to
escape his bondage. He was resign to serving the Malfoys
until the day he died. It was Harry who put him, unbidden,
out of his Malfoy misery. 

Next, the Giants, the giants seem totally irrational,
though some will object to the comparison, they seem
like Islamic radical fundamentalists. They seem content
to bring upon themselves the maximum sustained misery 
they can collectively muster. They seem determine to
life in irrational chaos and self-destruction. 

Hard to have sympathy with people who won't and can't
even conceive of trying to save themselves or improve
their lot in life. You simply can't save those who don't
want to be saved, as anyone who has ever dealt with drug
and alcohol addicts knows. You can't save them, you can
only help them save themselves, and to do that, they have
to acknowledge needing to be save, and further acknowledge
wanting to be saved. Addicts, Elves, and Giants don't
seem to have any interest in collectively 'saving' them
selves. In the case of the Giant, they seem determined to
destroy themselves. Hard to have sympathy for that; pity
-maybe, but not sympathy.

How does that now square with your ideas of sympathetic 
and unsympathetic creatures???

Steve/bboyminn