PS Chapter Two

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- The manner in which Dursleys abuse Harry is so over the top, it is hard to take seriously.

- Harry can't understand why would Dudley want to get a bicycle, since he apparently hates sports and is fat. Clearly, Dudley is morally deficient.

- Harry's glasses are held together only by Scotch tape, because Dudley punches him into nose so often. In the previous paragraph, it was stated that Harry is so fast, Dudley can't often catch him. These two sentences don't mesh together well.

- Not only is Harry not afraid of spiders, but also likes his scar. A true Gryffindor.

- Dudley is so fat he is like a pig. Hahaha, fat people are pathetic. Unless they're matronly of course.

- Okay, Dudley has no trouble while counting his gifts one by one, but when he has to add two at once, he is suddenly having problems?

- Harry find it hard to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg has broken her leg. The power of love at work, ladies and gentlemen.

- Petunia "looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this" is actually pretty interesting. If I remember Deathly Hallows correctly, Snape had some measure of control over his magic even before he entered Hogwarts and Petunia knew about it. As far as she knows, Harry may have caused Mrs. Figg to break her leg.

- Dudley is so spoiled he knows he only needs to pretend to cry to get all he wants.

- Again, Vernon warns Harry about doing anything weird. This and all the accounts of Harry's mishaps really reinforces the idea that the Dursleys are scared of Harry and think he is in control of his magic.

- Now that's Harry's school is mentioned, how come nobody noticed him being abused by the Dursleys? I don't mean classmates, I mean the school administration. They should know that both Harry and Dudley have the same address and they should know that Dursleys are Harry's legal guardians. Why didn't anyone the teachers notice that Harry's probably malnourished, wears only old clothes and his glasses are constantly getting broken, while Dudley's fat and owns only new things? I don't know that much about British educational system, especially in the eighties, but it probably wasn't that bad.

- In the zoo, Harry feels compassionate towards the snake. At this point, he's still a sympathetic kid.

- Now, after the snake incident, Piers claims that Harry was talking to the snake. Okay, but Parseltongue is apparently just hissing. So is Piers saying that Harry was talking just a simplification to avoid the revelation that Parseltongue is hissing? Or, if Harry was using human speech, why did the snake understand him?

- The Dursleys reaction is actually completely understandable. From their point of view, Harry was using is magic and from all the incidents that were mentioned, this one is the only one, where Dursleys could reasonably think that Harry was trying to attack them.

- And at the end of the chapter, we are again reminded that Harry is lonely and abused and that there's something mysterious about him.

Comments

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

Lack of salt has been known for centuries to be detrimental. Smothering is well-known to kill. The beliefs that brought about these deaths are more modern and go against established thought. A lot of beliefs which have gone against the establishment have later taken hold and even been right - think about the early experiments on human cadavers or the Sol-centric vision of the solar system - so it isn't odd to see people who should know better embracing new thought and practice. In the case of salt, for instance, it's well-known now that too much salt can be detrimental, too. Those parents could easily have known better since they knew about a newer theory (salt is bad for the heart) - they chose to follow the one and not the other and to go to extremes rather than taking the middle road. I sincerely doubt they put their beliefs above their child - I think that, because of their beliefs, they did the wrong thing mistakenly believing they would benefit the child. Same for the smothering death.

When someone does not accept their child's condition and instead tries to "cure" that condition (using "condition" to mean something that is a part of the person, not a temporary or potentially curable thing like pneumonia or the plague) they are bashing the child for having a condition which makes them different. The child is not good enough the way he or she is, the child must be brought within the parameters of "normal."

I agree that lack of sufficient information mitigates the intentions such as in the early blood transfusions. They needed certain information which they did not possess at the time. I also agree with you that there are other selfish reasons people may do things against their own, most certainly in the areas of belief and opinion or in Petunia's specialty, "what will the neighbors think?"