GOF Chapter 3: The Invitation

[oryx_leucoryx]

This is the obligatory Dursley chapter, in which we are treated to the home life of this family and learn how inferior they are to wizard families.

Dudley takes up a whole side of the square kitchen table. Ahem, I doubt a square kitchen table (as opposed to a dining room table) was designed to seat 8 people, 2 on a side. His parents excuse away his teachers' accusations of bullying. As opposed to the Weasleys who never receive reports making such heinous accusations against the twins (we'll see the school does occasionally owl their parents, but I don't see any awareness that some of what the twins do is bullying behavior). (This starts the theme of parents dealing with wayward sons in this book.) Dudley is forced into a diet of fruit and vegetables rather than his favorites. From the descriptions we get of the food Harry eats at Hogwarts I get the feeling Harry's favorites are closer to Dudley's than to the health foods, nor does he limit his intake. But somehow Harry remains thin, regardless of whether he gets starved by Petunia or stuffed by Molly or the House-elves.

Changing the food choices of the entire family is a good thing! However adjusting Harry's serving size to Dudley's (perceived?) emotional needs isn't. I don't begrudge Harry for working around a diet he doesn't need, but then I also sympathize with Dudley who does. Changing eating habits of years is hard.
This is also the place to say Dudley must have grown up as an emotional wreck. Knowing that his parents were capable of such physical and emotional deprivation of someone in their care - what if he ever failed to please them? I think a big part of his misbehavior is both making sure his parents know he *isn't* Harry as well as wanting the reassurance that they still love him, no matter what anyone else thinks.

Of Harry's 4 sources of help only one sends food he appreciates. Odd that even Hagrid managed to send an edible birthday cake. But how edible is it (or any of the others) 3 weeks later?

Harry is surprised that the Weasleys wrote directly to the Dursleys. Vernon is embarrassed that they didn't know how many stamps to use. But really, how hard is it to find out? Didn't they go to the post office to buy the stamps? What does it say about the exchange rate between Galleons and pounds that a family so poor finds it reasonable to spend on so many stamps for one letter? Molly's letter sounds as if she is trying too hard to make the Quidditch World Cup sound special and to make Arthur sound important. And of course she doesn't have enough imagination to realize that sending a letter by owl isn't normal for the Dursleys.

Harry is offended on Molly's behalf when Vernon calls her 'dumpy'. Since Molly likes Harry nobody is allowed to notice she is overweight.

I must say that the scene where Harry threatens Vernon with Sirius looks a lot less humorous now that I have seen Harry enjoy torturing a man for punishment, and Sirius engaging in Muggle-baiting.

If I am correct in my understanding that Ron is claiming that he and Molly wrote their respective letters at about the same time, then I am impressed with the UK post. Molly's letter arrived on Saturday morning. Pig arrived the same morning. Considering the speed of owls elsewhere, it looks as though Ron's letter was sent earlier that morning. So a letter got delivered the morning it was sent?

I am less impressed with the Weasleys. They plan on taking Harry regardless of the Dursleys' consent. One could argue that eventually Molly and Arthur realized their sons were not exaggerating when they said Harry had been imprisoned and starved, but seeing how Arthur views the treatment of Muggles, both in this book and in COS, I doubt this made a difference.

Harry is happy specifically because Dudley is suffering and he isn't. The seeds of the bully of HBP and war criminal of DH.

Comments

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

We had a modern building, too. We were going to the basement, where were windows covered by violet paper to protect us against ultra-violet light.

There was no basement in my school, so that's why they eventually settled on the hallway as a better option than the classroom.

My Granpa told me: "If you can see an atomic explosion, you are dead. Deal with it.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, we knew the missiles in Cuba could not reach us, the fear was that if war broke out, the Russians would send bombers.

At the age of nine, the only thing I understood about bombs is what I'd seen in movies and on TV, and that was primarily WW2 era, a plane would fly over the target and drop a bomb on it.

I remember one recess period right when things were reaching a crisis, we children didn't even play during recess, rather we stood around discussing whether we were going to die within the next day or two or not, and I kept saying I didn't know why the Russians would want to fly over our town and bomb it.

We finally realized that we were late to return to class from recess, but when we looked we saw our teacher just sitting on the back steps, watching us, not saying a word. So we went up to her, and I asked, "Miss Wallace, why should we worry about the Russians bombing our town?"

Now when I got older I realized that not only did we have a major factory in town that manufactured aircraft engines for the military, but we were also the home of Sikorsky Helicopters, so my town actually was a valid military target.

But that wasn't my teacher's answer; she very seriously answered: "Because we're halfway between New York City and New London, and the radiation that will result when they get bombed will kill us."

I knew about New York City, it's where we got most of our television channels in those days before cable and satellite TV, and my grandparents had taken my sister and me down to the city the summer before, so to me it was that big city that was FAR to the west. I didn't know anything about New London, our teacher explained that it was about as far to the east from us as NYC was to the west, and that it was the location of the National Coast Guard base, plus they made nuclear submarines for the Navy there.

So then I was even MORE upset, the idea that what I had to worry about wasn't some aircraft flying directly over me and dropping a bomb on my head, but that my town wouldn't get bombed at all, but that we'd all end dying due to nuclear radiation because we were between two targets that WOULD be bombed...

Maybe the main difference is that our people use to make jokes, when the situation is unbearable. So I remember the basement, and that everybody knew it was stupid, and that everybody was joking about it, because there was nothing else to do... Maybe that is why it was not so scary for us - much more like some stupid game...

I don't remember anyone making jokes about it back in those days. Bomb shelters were quite the thing back then, many people either built separate shelters in their backyards (actually UNDER their backyards), or spent a lot of money modifying their basements to allegedly withstand nuclear attack.

My parents didn't do that, they never even bothered with bomb drills in the basement. They never talked about it, but they probably understood the futility of such exercises.

But still, who was it, who said people learn to defend against weapons from the last war, which is of no use, when there are new weapons?

Here the saying is that generals are always fighting the last war...

Which is basically true. They learn lessons from the previous war, and expect them to apply to the current situation. Which usually results in disaster.

[ioanna-ioannina.livejournal.com]

Here it was like: "Why should they bomb us?" -- "They don´t need a reason. They can just miss a bit. A few hundred kilometers here or there, who of them cares? We are between them. If anybody is stupid enough to hit the Big Read Button of Doom, well, goodbye, good old republic, it was nice to know you." It was like this all the time I remember until the end of the Cold War.

(In fact, it was equally possible for us to be hit by Russians as by Americans. The Americans could do it as our enemies, the Russians to create a radioactive zone in the middle of the Europe... And we did not have any real means to fight back.)

War is stupid. :-)) And trying to manipulate people with fear is even more stupid. :-)) I´m glad it is over.

And yes, the bit with taxes is good, too.