Family and Other Loyalty

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 177780

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03" <horridporrid03 at ...> wrote:
>
> Betsy Hp:
> The reason it struck me as odd is how it reflected on our heroes.  
> Hermione permanently marred the face of a fellow student because that 
> student showed more loyalty to her mother than towards Hermione.  JKR 
> could have had Marietta choose to snitch for obviously selfish 
> reasons.  She did not.  And my view of Hermione was tainted because 
> of JKR's story-telling choice.
> 

I, too, find it an odd choice to show the consequences of 
Hermione's hex--and to bring it up again in HBP.  I end 
up veering uncomfortably from one side to the other about
what I think JKR is doing.

On one hand, although she never shows Hermione or 
Harry regretting Marietta's fate, she does show it.  If
the last we had seen of Marietta was the pimples showing
up in DD's office, then we wouldn't even be having 
this discussion.

It would be a cartoon sort of justice... but we'd take 
it in and forget it.  Like the passing glimpse of the other
children in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  As he
ascends into the heavens, Charlie sees that the children 
bear the physical marks of their "fixing" by the Oompa-
Loompas.  

But do we worry about them?  I doubt anyone but the 
most tenderhearted of children thinks about them at all.
We assume that they will get better, and be all the better 
for the experience.

Likewise, we'd assume that Marietta got better if we 
never saw her again, and didn't see Cho's reproachful
(or is it apologetic?) look at Harry.

Or know that Harry felt satisfaction when he saw 
two months later that Marietta was still wearing her 
scars.

It seems to me that we can take these moments in 
three different ways.  (By the way, that's the general
"we" and doesn't require that "we" have to agree on
which way we take it.)  

1. We can agree with Harry, and enjoy that Marietta 
has been well and justly punished for her betrayal.

Or 

2. We can disagree with Harry and feel uncomfortable
with our hero (and friend Hermione) because their
idea of justice goes beyond what we consider 
acceptable.

Or

3. We can convince ourselves that the damage isn't all 
that bad, and that Marietta will eventually recover.  I 
think that's reading  against the text, but I don't fault
anyone for doing it, as I tend to read against the 
text about all sorts of things (especially when it 
comes to Snape).

As far as Option 1 goes, I find it weird, because the
punishment is so close to actual practice--I can't
help thinking of the women who are scarred with 
acid, usually for committing adultery.  It's also
much like shaving the head, which was a common
punishment for women who sleep with enemy
soldiers (with the obvious difference that hair 
grows back fairly quickly).  

Now, maybe I'm bringing in RL stuff that JKR never
intended to apply, but it beats me how someone 
who worked for Amnesty, Int... an organization that
works to expose and stop these practices, would
not make that connection.

So, I tell myself that it's a deliberate move on JKR's
part to invoke Option 2--which gets me to 
question the tactics of the "good" guys and, by 
extension, to question any RL "good" guys who 
step over the line of acceptable treatment to 
enemies.

And then she goes and tells an interviewer how
much she despises those, like Marietta, who
betray their friends.  

And then I'm left reeling, because if she thinks
that's a just punishment, then the  extra glimpses 
of Marietta aren't about justice--or making us 
question justice, but seem more like spitting on 
the corpse of a hanged man.

Then I end up questioning what the intent is--
and from that, what the intent is with all the 
moments of justice and punishment, including
the times that Draco starts a fight and ends up
reaping a tenfold penalty for it, or when the 
children mock Umbridge by making the 
clopping sounds, or Montague ending up with
some unspecified, but also permanent damage
from being shoved into the Vanishing Cabinet,
or Rita Skeeter held captive for days and then 
blackmailed into becoming Hermione's tool.  

Again, if that's a deliberate strategy on JKR's part,
it's brilliant.  If not, then it's simply that I have 
a real problem with her sense of the world.

Which is why I can't blame anyone who wants
to take Option 3 and speculate that some things
happened in the story that aren't necessarily
supported by the text.



Montavilla47