CHAPTER DISCUSSION: PS/SS 3, The Letters from No One

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 187793


> CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer Stone/Philosopher Stone
> 
> Chapter Three, The Letters from No One
<snip excellent summary>
 
> 1. This chapter seems to have a lot of over the top action in it. The Smeltings uniform (maroon tailcoat, orange knickerbockers, a straw boater, and a knobbly stick?!), the Stonewall uniform Petunia attempts to imitate (compared to elephant skins), and the extremes to which Vernon goes to avoid the letters. What was your reaction to these? Are there others in the chapter I missed? How do you feel they contributed to/detracted from the book, and how do you see them fitting into the series now?

Carol responds:
First, I don't think that the regular Stonewall High uniform would look like elephant skin. It's only Petunia's inadequate substitute that looks wrinkled. Still, the contrast between Harry's gray, prisonlike uniform and Dudley's extravagant one is deliberate, illustrating the difference in treatment of the indulged Dudley, who goes to a presumably expensive and exclusive school (which is, nonetheless, a training ground for bullies given the Smeltings stick) whereas Harry (it seems) is being sent to a state-supported school whose very name suggests a prisonyard at no expense to the Dursleys. On one level, JKR seems to be poking fun at "public" (private) schools like Eton and Harrow, with their outlandish and antiquated (or, if you prefer, quaint and colorful) uniforms. (Being American, I don't know where the Smeltings stick and gray uniform fit in.) On another level, she's contrasting the drabness and meaninglessness of the life Harry would have led at Stonewall High with the excitement of the as-yet-unknown Hogwarts. The owls and the all-knowing writer of the letters (the magic behind the changing addresses is never explained) is both comically exaggerated and mysterious, arousing the curiosity of the (presumably young) reader along with Harry. 

My reaction as an adult to Vernon's extreme behavior in nailing up the doors, etc., was how is he supposed to get to work? Vernon's "solutions" work against himself more than they work against Harry. Dudley's reaction of "Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" about sums it up. Only, of course, the exaggerated humor of these chapters was never intended to be realistic. We're clearly in a fantasy world even in Little Whinging. They serve as a light introduction to the series, making the Dursleys and especially Vernon into comic villains with Harry as a cross between a male Cinderella and Everychild. The distance between these chapters and DH is immeasurable. JKR has accomplished quite a feat by gradually moving Harry and the reader from the world of SS/PS to the world of DH through subtle changes in tone and atmosphere suitable to Harry's advancing age and the darker subject matter. That Harry is still recognizable as Harry despite his increased maturity and everything that happens to him in the later books is also quite an accomplishment.
> 
> 2. Vernon is described as grayish white after he reads the first line of Harry's letter. Petunia is described as looking like she might faint, clutching her throat, and making a choking noise. What do you make of these reactions? What do you think is behind them?

Carol responds:
Like everything else in these early chapters, the reactions are exaggerated (compare Vernon pulling out parts of his mustache later). However, Petunia, at least, knows very well what the letter is, and judging from Vernon's remarks about Dumbledore later, so does he. I think that they know, first, that their efforts to stifle the magic out of Harry have failed. More important, they've tried to distance themselves from what they perceive (with some justification) as being the dangerous magical world, and they (like Fudge much later) want to maintain their illusion of safety and normalcy and consequently, they're in denial--"There's no such thing as magic." They may even want to believe their own lie that Harry's parents died in a car accident because it's "normal" and dissociates them from "weirdos" who get themselves "blown up" by becoming involved with magic and other abnormalities. Their little world and their illusion are threatened, so Vernon in particular goes to extremes to prevent Harry from knowing the truth. If he doesn't know he's a Wizard and isn't trained in using magic, everything will be safe and "normal" at 4 Privet Drive. It's very much like denying that "Lord Thingy" has returned.
> 
> 3. "I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?" Harry and Dudley overhear Vernon saying these words to Petunia in their discussion of the letter. What does this tell us about Vernon and Petunia?

Carol responds:
I think I've already partially answered this question. Clearly, even Vernon knows that the Potters were a witch and a wizard, and like Petunia, who knows more or less what happened at Godric's Hollow, he thinks that magic is dangerous and abnormal. She knows more than he does, of course, having known Lily during her childhood and youth (they'd have spent summers and probably Christmas holidays together) and at least encountered "that awful boy, not to mention tried to get into Hogwarts herself), but I think that she has fed the flames of Vernon's fear by emphasizing her sisters' "abnormality," and she herself is paranoid that the neighbors will find out about first "the Potters" and then Harry. They don't want their house blown up, either. Solution? Make sure that Harry is as repressed, restrained, and inconspicuous as possible to "stamp" the "dangerous nonsense" out of him, meanwhile denying that magic exists.


> 4. Why do you think Vernon and Petunia decide to move Harry into a bedroom?

Carol:
Clearly, they're embarrassed that some apparently omniscient person knows that they're mistreating Harry. It's almost as if they didn't realize it themselves until they were confronted with it, so they quickly undo that particular form of abuse by giving him his own room (still smaller than Dudley's and cluttered with junk--we can't give him any delusions of equality). It's another form of denial, I think.
> 
> 5. Why does Petunia hand Vernon a fruitcake when he is nailing the mail slot shut instead of a hammer?

Carol:
Comic exaggeration to show that she's flustered--and possibly a dig at fruitcakes if JKR hates them. The storebought fruitcakes that get passed from one person to another because they taste like cardboard tend to get about as hard as particle board. (Now, *good* homemaed fruitcake is as different from that storebought junk as Scabbers from most pet rats, but I digress.)
> 
> 6. Any opinions as to why green ink is used in these letters (which we now know are his Hogwarts letters, of course)? Or purple wax?

Carol:
Only to distinguish them from Muggle letters, I think. If they're from DD, though, it might be an indication of his flamboyant taste. I don't know about green, but he seems inordinately fond of purple.
> 
> 7. The chapter is called "Letters from No One". Who do you think it responsible for sending these letters to Harry? Why the misleading chapter title?

Carol:
The original sender has to be either Dumbledore or McGonagall, based on whatever information is contained in the magical book that records the birth of prospective Hogwarts students (both Harry's and Tom Riddle's names had been "down since birth"; I imagine that's the case with all magical British children. It's not clear whether the sender knows that Harry's address has changed (through a change in the book) or whether the letters magically address themselves. (Owls, we later learn, don't need an address to find the recipient even assuming that magical owls can read.) As for the "letters from no one," it apparently reflects Harry's perception at the moment. (For one thing, he's had an envelope in his hand long enough to see that there's no return address.) Later, Hagrid seems to be magically keeping track of Harry's whereabouts, but he's clearly nowhere near Privet Drive. And I don't think that even Mrs. Figg and her cats could know that Harry has been moved from the cupboard under the stairs to the smallest bedroom. It has to be magic of some sort.

Carol, thanking Zara for her delightful summary and questions