Once again, Rowling never thought about what she said about anything signifies.
She calls the House Elves "slaves" because she wanted Hermione to make a fool of herself in public as yet another jokey thing where you know that Hermione is actually *right* but it's supposed to be *funny*, and eventually she either gives up or backs off, or her rightness gets proven.
Funny thing. It never *quite* happened that way, did it? Sort of in that ball park, yes, but in the end, Hermione merely accepts elf "slavery".
But then, *is* it slavery? There is not one word anywhere in some 4000 pages of text to suggest that a House Elf can be *sold*. In fact Dobby comes right out from the beginning and tells us that an elf can only be *freed*.
They are not slaves. They are *family members*. To free them is to disown them, and it is a great disgrace. Like blasting them off a family tapestry.
And it must happen from time to time or else why would there be a House Elf relocation office? Of which Dobby and Winky are unaccountably ignorant.
Or, perhaps, and this makes as much sense as anything, the office of House Elf relocation's business is to find new families for Elves whose own families have become extinct in the human line. The office wants nothing to do with freed elves. Reducing Dobby and WInky to the status of illegal aliens whose employment reflects badly upon those who do it. Although there must be a few people who do. Given the level of disgrace that attaches to a freed elf, there must be few who risk such rejection.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-02-12 01:27 am (UTC)She calls the House Elves "slaves" because she wanted Hermione to make a fool of herself in public as yet another jokey thing where you know that Hermione is actually *right* but it's supposed to be *funny*, and eventually she either gives up or backs off, or her rightness gets proven.
Funny thing. It never *quite* happened that way, did it? Sort of in that ball park, yes, but in the end, Hermione merely accepts elf "slavery".
But then, *is* it slavery? There is not one word anywhere in some 4000 pages of text to suggest that a House Elf can be *sold*. In fact Dobby comes right out from the beginning and tells us that an elf can only be *freed*.
They are not slaves. They are *family members*. To free them is to disown them, and it is a great disgrace. Like blasting them off a family tapestry.
And it must happen from time to time or else why would there be a House Elf relocation office? Of which Dobby and Winky are unaccountably ignorant.
Or, perhaps, and this makes as much sense as anything, the office of House Elf relocation's business is to find new families for Elves whose own families have become extinct in the human line. The office wants nothing to do with freed elves. Reducing Dobby and WInky to the status of illegal aliens whose employment reflects badly upon those who do it. Although there must be a few people who do. Given the level of disgrace that attaches to a freed elf, there must be few who risk such rejection.