What is a house elf?
Katie
anigrrrl2 at yahoo.com
Tue Oct 30 15:46:26 UTC 2007
No: HPFGUIDX 178688
--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Bart Lidofsky <bartl at ...>
wrote:
> Bart:
> The question really is, what is a house elf? Humans have long, and
continue to, use animals for work and food. In general, animals who
are higher in intelligence and are used for complex tasks are not
generally eaten (although horses appear to be on the borderline
there). Some animals have a genetic instinct to follow a leader
unquestioningly, such as pack animals.
<<<SNIP>>>
It does seem that house elves are treated more like highly
intelligent working animals than human slaves.
<<<SNIP>>>
The question becomes (and is an underdeveloped theme in the book),
when does an animal become a person. Centaurs, for example, are very
clearly depicted as people, while kneazles, for example, are clearly
on the animal side. But on what side are house elves? Maybe the
encyclopedia will tell us what JKR had in mind.
>
> Bart
***Katie:
I had never really thought of this angle before. I think it's very
interesting...
However, I still fall on the side of the storyline just being poorly
written and conceived. If JKR was trying to make a comment on the
treatment of working animals, then she should have made it
unambiguously clear that House Elves were creatures, not people. I
agree that this is a very undeveloped theme.
Dobby's servile attitude and cartoonish speech is indicative of his
lesser intelligence and maybe of his genetic disposition to serve.
However, his growing confidence with his own magic, his independence
of spirit after coming to work at Hogwarts, and moreover his
determination to be free, contradict his status as a creature and
make him far too human for his bondage to be acceptable. Harry's
grave marker, honoring Dobby's pride in his freedom, further
reinforces the idea that House Elves are human-like, with hopes and
dreams and rights, whether or not they are honored in the WW.
Kreacher is another example of independence that belies his
seemingly servile attitude. Yes, he is unswervingly loyal to the
Blacks, and then, eventually, to Harry. However, it took a
significant shift in attitude for him to be able to accept Harry as
his "master", and that must have taken quite a bit of internal
dialogue and consideration. These are very human characteristics.
Had JKR wanted to depict these creatures as animals, not people, she
should have left out Dobby's and Kreacher's internal struggles.
These kinds of crises of conscience are purely human, IMO. Thus,
when Kreacher is left enslaved and nothing is said of the House
Elves in the epilogue, it is hard to understand what point JKR was
trying to make.
At the very least, the House Elf storyline is incredibly self-
contradictory, IMO. Hermione shouldn't be making decisions for the
House Elves, but it's ok for their "masters" to. House Elves
shouldn't be enslaved, but nor should they be forced out of slavery
against their wishes.
I'm just flummuxed by the whole thing! KATIE
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