"Morality" and "tolerance" in the HP books (Was: a sandwich)

[susanmcgee48176]

No: HPFGUIDX 178865

snip>
> Jen: I read SPEW as not being about freeing the house elves so much
> as the Trio, particularly Hermione, learning about the cycles of
> social activism.  Hermione's attempts follow what is a fairly
typical
> pattern for an activist in my own experience, moving from the truly
> idealistic attempt to free all the house elves by knitting hats, to
> smaller hopes for the freedom of a few elves such as Winky and
> Kreacher, to finally attempting to make some small change whenever
> possible for an elf experiencing injustice in front of her.
Raising
> awareness iow.
><SNIP>


I agree with this.

Any social justice movement starts with the ideas/dreams/thoughts of
a few individuals who are almost always ridiculed. (Women speaking in
public? Voting? The next thing you know they'll be wearing pants). If
you look at the rise of civil rights for women in the United States,
for example, you'll see that the early campaigners for women's rights
were ridiculed and harassed.

I don't think that JKR was suggesting that slavery is okay or
natural...I think she was suggesting that social change takes a long
period of time, and yes, oppressed peoples DO internalize the beliefs
of the larger society....

You'll notice that everyone laughed at Hermione when she brought up
SPEW.....including Ron...as I recall even people on this list thought
she was off the wall because she questioned the house elf system.

I think it would have paralleled the real world more closely if she
had had more dissatisfaction and rebellion among the slaves, because
there have always been more resistance and uprisings than the
oppressors want the slaves to believe.

Another JKR message is that even the bravest and the most brilliant
are flawed. Harry is as close to perfect as anyone in the books, but
he only starts to "get it" about house elves at the constant prodding
of Hermione. That IS closer to the real world..every great leader of
liberation struggles has had major flaws..it's the nature of human
beings...

Susan