A sandwich

[lealess]

No: HPFGUIDX 178668

--- "stephab67 wrote:
>
> Lealess wrote:
> It seemed to be an anti-slavery story at one time. It ended up
> being anything but.
> 
> Steph:
> Well, I think that's going a bit too far in the opposite direction.
> I'm with those who think that the writing was a bit sloppy in this
> storyline, but I don't think that JKR was being nefarious on this
> point, trying to send a message that slavery is OK, after spending
> seven books telling people that racism is bad.
>

I'll go farther in that direction and say the books in the end show a
society where there is a natural order, with the wizards at the top
and those either variably suited to serve wizards (elves, goblins) or
too primitive or exotic to serve them (giants, centaurs) at the
bottom.  As this is a natural order, it presumably cannot be changed,
just as Slytherins can't change their scales.  The good wizard,
therefore, takes on his burden and becomes a benevolent superior,
better able to assist his inferiors in assuming their places to
improve their characters.  This attitude obviously benefits the
obsequious house-elf, who, as we've seen, is only happy when serving,
and the inferior goblin, whose morality tends to be native and thus
needs to be corrected.  As for the more unruly savages such as giants
and centaurs, they are to be firmly contained or marginalized, or
perhaps even exterminated, for fear their violence will infect the
inferior populations.  Well, even the "unnatural" house-elves,
goblins, giants and centaurs served our worthy hero, as they had to,
recognizing him as their moral superior, but in the end, the
unnaturals had to go to make way for the reinstitution of the true
natural order.

This was the viewpoint of British imperialism and, in the end, it
seems to fit what JKR had in mind for her society.  Along with many
other British anachronisms like distrust of foreigners and a view that
bullying is just childish public school fun, the message about how a
good colonial treats his inferiors reflects a smug and patronizing
attitude that completely belongs in the past.

JMO,
lealess