House elves question

[va32h]

No: HPFGUIDX 174620

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Sherry Gomes <sherriola at ...> 
wrote:
> I suppose we all have things that get to us, based either on our 
>personal experience or knowledge or history of our world or simply 
>the things that really push our buttons.  I have no personal 
>experience with slavery, nor do any of my ancestors, as far as I 
>know.  But I don't have to have experienced it to have felt angry 
>and grieved when studying slavery in my country, the US, during 
>school history classes.  No, I'm not African American, but that 
>didn't stop me from feeling ill over those studies.  I remember 
>reading how white slave owners would claim that the slaves *liked* 
being slaves, that they were happy being slaves.  It struck me as a 
>shameful justification then, even when I was too young to know the 
>word justification.  
> 
>To bring this back to HP and house elves, every time I hear a 
>wizard in the books say that house elves *like* being slaves, that 
>they are happy, it makes me cringe.  It takes me right back to those 
>history classes.  I don't like it, and nothing in the text of the 
>books made me like it any better.

va32h:

I understand what you are saying, but I don't think it's a question 
of house elves = African American slaves. 

For one thing, African American slaves were actual human beings, 
whereas elves are magical creatures. And yes, I know that slaveowners 
considered their slaves less than human beings, but we aren't talking 
about perceptions, but actual biological constructs. 

The US is my country too, and I lived for many years in Virginia, 
where alas the wounds of the Civil War are still quite fresh and 
tender. So it's not that I don't understand how repugnant the history 
of slavery and the very notion of human ownership is. 

While I can see parallels between house-elves and American slavery 
(just as I can see parallels between the Death Eaters and the Ku Klux 
Klan) I just don't think JKR is trying to equate the two. 

Someone else onlist suggested that the more likely analogy is that 
house elves are like sentient, talking dogs. They want to be with 
people, they want to serve people, they will do so grudingly for a 
cruel master but happily for a kind one. It's cruel to beat your dog 
or starve him, or deny him your human companionship, but it isn't 
cruel to own a dog. And dogs, being pack animals, would most likely 
be happier owned by a loving family than out wandering on their own. 

Which would make Dobby analgous to Snoopy perhaps, or Brian, the dog 
from Family Guy. 

I do understand (and share) your distaste about slavery.  I just 
don't think that elves, as portrayed in these books, are the same as 
human beings. 

va32h