Prejudice/Slytherins/House Elves/Failed Messages in the Books

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 177890

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Katie" <anigrrrl2 at ...> wrote:

> 
> I believe the waters started to get muddy when JKR introduced the House 
> Elf issue, and later on, discussed goblins and centaurs. However, let 
> me focus on the House Elf issue, which I believe is the biggest failure 
> of the books. Introducing characters that are obviously powerfully 
> magical, are enslaved by all kinds of wizards, not only "bad" ones, and 
> are "happy" to be so enslaved was, IMO, a big mistake. At least to me, 
> a History graduate student, the parallels between African slavery and 
> House Elves were too great to be ignored. 
<snip>
 It is never ok to have people be 
> enslaved, whether they think they "like" it or not. 

Pippin:
I think the point is that there's something more basic than freedom, 
and that's a sense of individual self-worth. In the history of Western 
thought, that is closely connected with the idea of the individual soul, 
which is of course central to the books.  

Kreacher and Winky cannot enjoy freedom because they have no sense 
of self-worth apart from  service to their owners. Merope gives up on 
her magic and subsequently dies because she has no sense of self-worth 
apart from being desired by Tom Riddle Sr. 

Harry and Dobby, OTOH, have an inextinguishable awareness of their 
own worth, and so despite years of abuse they never feel as crushed as 
Winky or Merope do.

The relationship between Christian ideals and the practice of slavery is 
fraught, and I'm no expert on it at all, but it has certainly been pointed 
out many times that Christian slaveholders ultimately undermined 
their position by teaching their slaves that they had individual and 
valuable souls. 

I think what we are to see in canon is that the House Elves can not
be freed until their sense of individual self-worth is restored. Only
then will freedom have any meaning for them.
 
JKR did see it through as far as having her heroes recognize that the
Elves don't think like they do. Harry understands that Kreacher 
behaved the way he did because he had been taught that he had
no value apart from service to their owners. But Ron finally
recognized that whether the Elves believe  it or not, their lives
are valuable for their own sake. That is an important step. 

Similarly, the Slytherin belief that  human value lies in the purity
of one's blood rather than in the ability to make positive choices
has been diluted.

The dementors are the only sentient beings in the books who are shown 
as wholly evil and without even the possibility of redemption. I do not 
think it is any accident that they leave the self with no memories
except being powerless and afraid,  and that if allowed 
they will destroy the soul  itself.

The one great change in the WW that does come about, though it
is only implied in the books rather than stated,  is that the
dementors are finally recognized as the evil they are, and will no
longer be ministry allies.

So why do we see only small steps towards other changes in the
books?  IMO, because JKR wants social change that is orderly and 
incremental. She gave her reason in the first book, with the death 
of the unicorn: because when violence breaks out, the innocent 
are the first to suffer. Even in DH, it is Hedwig who dies first.

Harry has always wanted to help individuals. He never thought 
he could change the world; it was Hermione who wanted to do 
that, and had to learn that politics is the art of the possible. 

Pippin