[HPforGrownups] Dudely (was Re: Why did Barty Crouch Jr join Voldemort?)

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 189762

On 11/22/2010 1:30 PM, Shelley wrote:
> His parents "abused him" by
> giving him everything he wanted, and never bothered to discipline him.
> I don't think his parents "made him" a brat or a bully, but rather saw
> very clearly that their son was a brat, and encouraged it by enabling it
> to happen. We see Dudley trashing all his toys, and never a correction
> from his parents. Every time they issue an excuse such as "boys will be
> boys" or some-such nonsense, they enable that bad behavior, and take
> Dudley to take another step to being truly bad.

     It's more than that; his parents, particularly Vernon, ENCOURAGED 
him to be a bully. Vernon is depicted as a predatory businessman (note 
that the only predatory businesspeople shown in the WW are the ones in 
Knockturn Alley), who believes that the best way to success is to knock 
everybody else down and take what's theirs.

     I recall, years ago, a Chinese buffet opening up near me that 
actually served fairly high quality food (to answer the question, "How 
could they afford to do that?", the answer unfortunately turned out to 
be, "They couldn't."). This meant that fresh food came out a bit more 
slowly than it might in other buffets. One time, when a fresh platter of 
orange flavored chicken came out, a girl, about 10 years old, took a 
couple of plates and piled the whole platter on to it, leaving nothing 
for everybody else. When she came to the table, instead of admonishing 
her greed, her family praised her effort; they only ate about half of 
it, but she made sure that they had all of it and nobody else did.

     In other words, the Dursley's didn't just ignore Dudley's bullying 
behavior. They ENCOURAGED it. It is interesting that the contact with 
the Dementor managed to activate Dudley's conscience; perhaps the 
Wizards of Az actually DID know what they were doing. Nah, not when 
possibly innocent people are being put in danger of losing their souls, 
and the fanatically evil have no problem retaining their powers even 
when there for over a decade.

     Bart