Goblins; different from Griphook?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 184095

Mike:
> 
> But goblins? Where was the exception? Which one broke ranks to show 
> us that they don't all think the way Griphook thinks? 

Pippin:
The goblin family murdered by Voldemort that Bill mentioned  in OOP. 

Most of the goblins sit out the war. So do most of the wizards. Of
those who do fight back, the majority are those whose children are
directly threatened.  

Now, if there were goblin children at Hogwarts and the goblins still
didn't want to fight Voldemort, I'd think they had very different
moral standards than wizards. But there are no goblin kids at
Hogwarts. Hmmm.

What a previous poster said about Hogwarts applies to the goblins as
well, IMO. If the story was about what goblins are like, then I would
expect Griphook to be a fair example of them. But the story is about
what *Harry* is like, and to understand that we only need to know what
Harry knows about goblins. 

I think it would be a bit disingenous to say that Griphook made an
honest bargain. IMO, he knew Harry would reasonably expect him to help
Harry  get out of the vault as well as into it, just as Harry knew
perfectly well that Griphook could reasonably expect to receive the
sword when he'd fulfilled his side of the bargain. There isn't any
cultural misunderstanding here,IMO, just two sharp bargainers each
counting on the other's greed to keep him from asking too many
questions. What's that saying? Oh yeah, "You can't cheat an honest
man." Or goblin.

Does Griphook show goblins in a bad light? Sure, just as Greyback
shows werewolves in a bad light, and Voldemort shows humans in a bad
light. And if the story were a sort of fictionalized reportage, like
those social studies texts we used to have where you'd follow a
"typical" Chinese boy through his day (it would always be *his* day)
then, yeah, I could think, that's what goblins are like. But JKR is
writing a novel, not social studies for the WW. 

Pippin