Deathly Hallows:Ariana Dumbledore

[muscatel1988]

No: HPFGUIDX 181951

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "floribelole" <floribelole at ...>
wrote:
>
> Was Ariana raped?
> 
> floribelole

Mus:

For a very close literary parallel, see Virginia Andrews' My Sweet
Audrina, which features a young child who is attacked and raped by
three boys near her home and sequestered at home, whose psychological
integrity is wrecked and whose family is shattered.

To my knowledge, this connection was first made here:
http://community.livejournal.com/deadlyhollow/10771.html

As to the suggestion that rape can't feature in a book for children,
I'd counter that the series at this point is not intended only for a
child audience, and that while depicting rape on the page would be out
of kilter in the book like this, implying it in such a way that it
would blow past a child reader but be perceived by an adult is a
different thing.  Your average child reader will interpret Rita
Skeeter's suggestions of impropriety in the relationship between Harry
and Dumbledore as favouritism; an adult will realise - and was surely
intended to realise - that she's making a very different and much
darker accusation.