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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