DD and Harry and Dursleys Re: Christian Forgiveness and Snape

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 164356

Carol earlier:
> <SNIP of the whole post basically>
> > (BTW, and I'm not defending the Dursleys, Harry didn't *live* in a
broom cupboard. He only slept there from the time he was about five
until just after his eleventh birthday. Nor do I see how the Dursleys
could have kept him there for a month during the school year as SS/PS,
with its fairytale atmosphere, suggests. The school authorities would
have come to investigate. Just a sidenote of no importance to my main
argument.)
> 
> Alla:
> 
> You are not defending Dursleys, okay. What is your point then by 
> mentioning that he **only** slept there? What argument does it
advance if any? <snip>

> Canon says that he spent a lot of time there and you are saying that
he could not have, because school authorities would have grew worried?
> 
> If we were to dismiss some things due to fairytale atmosphere, I
would say that school authorities or children services were way
overdue to check on Harry and Dudley as well. Surely they would have
seen the clothes Harry comes in in school, his general appearance , etc.
<snip>
> certainly take Harry being confined to cupboard as true because
canon says so, fairy tale atmopshere or not.

Carol responds:
I take a month in a cupboard as exaggeration, primarily because it
could only happen in a fairytale atmosphere, just like the
descriptions of Hagrid as having hands the size of garbage can lids
and being the height of two men, are humorously exaggerated for the
atmosphere of the first book. How is it that Hagrid wasn't noticed if
he's that big? Nobody cast a Memory Charm on all those Muggles. And
how on earth did he fit on a Muggle train? How can his handkerchiefs
be the size of tablecloths and his feet the size of dolphins? They can't. 

Re Hagrid, I could quote canon to show that the descriptions of him
are not consistent, either internally or with each other. That being
the case, I think we can regard a month in a broom cupboard as
exaggeration of the same sort, especially given the Cinderella
atmosphere of the first book. Why does no one from Social Services
notice that Harry is absent from school for a month and come to
inquire? Because it's a fairytale or because the narrator is given to
exaggeration. Take your pick.

Carol, who should learn not to make asides that detract from her main
point!