Some Assorted Questions and Comments on the Dursleys

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

1. Is Smeltings a boarding school or a day school? My first instinct is that it's a local private day school, mainly because Piers Polkiss, Dudley's neighborhood friend, also attends the school. But I've read a lot of fics in which it's a boarding school, so I'm not sure.

2. I have trouble pegging the Dursleys' social class. One the one hand, several factors lead me to believe that they are upper-middle class--Vernon has a white collar job and drives a company car; they have a four-bedroom house, and Dudley attends a private school. On the other hand, I feel like the Dursleys'behavior better fits the stereotype of a working class family. Vernon reminds me of Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin from Family Guy, and both of those characters are meant to be caricatures of working class men. It's possible that Vernon grew up in a working class family, but that doesn't quite make sense to me, either, because he also attended Smeltings. So, I know that the Dursleys are supposed to be caricatures, but I'm not sure whom they're supposed to be caricatures of. The problem might be simply that I'm American and not that familiar with British culture.

3. If the Dursleys were a real-life family in the UK, would they have been able to get away with forcing Harry to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs? I want to believe that, if anybody knew about the cupboard, they would have reported the family to social services, and I don't think it's very realistic that the Dursleys would have managed to keep Harry's sleeping arrangements a secret for eleven years. For instance, I imagine it would have been difficult for them to prevent Dudley's friends from finding out about the cupboard and saying something to their parents. But maybe I'm being too optimistic.

4. Rowling makes it sound like it's the worst thing in the world that Harry has to wear Dudley's old clothes. But it's actually perfectly normal for the younger/smaller children in a family to be given the hand-me-down clothes of their older/larger relatives. New clothes, especially school uniforms, are expensive, and children often outgrow their clothes long before wearing them out. Harry's clothes may have been baggy on him, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the Dursleys dressed him in rags.

Comments

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

2. I have trouble pegging the Dursleys' social class.

From my American perspective, I always felt that the Dursleys were what could be pegged as an "upwardly mobile" family...coming from working class roots but currently working in a white-collar job.

It's possible that Vernon grew up in a working class family, but that doesn't quite make sense to me, either, because he also attended Smeltings.

According to Pottermore, Vernon and Petunia met when Petunia went to work right out of school as a secretary at an insurance company where Vernon was a middle manager.

So we know for sure that Petunia at least does not have any higher education. Vernon attended Smeltings, but nothing is mentioned about any education he may have pursued after graduating from Smeltings.

Vernon's father could very well have been "working class", but perhaps had worked his way up to, say, factory floor manager. Vernon's parents perhaps felt that sending their son to a "better" school like Smeltings would give him a leg up for his future career prospects, and in their mind a career at midlevel management in an insurance company was very prestigious.

3. If the Dursleys were a real-life family in the UK, would they have been able to get away with forcing Harry to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs?

Sleeping in a cupboard under the stairs never really bothered me, and really, how would anyone outside of the Dursleys know?

Hand-me-down clothing didn't bother me, either. What bothered me is that it should have been noticeable that the Dursleys were semi-starving Harry, and that Dudley at least was subjecting him to physical abuse, and yet no one intervened, no neighbors, and even worse, no teachers or school authorities.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Harry wasn't starved to a point where his health was seriously affected. He was strong enough to run and successfully escape from Dudley et al, he was strong enough to participate normally in sports etc. It wasn't anything like the case of 'A Child Called It' where the boy in question was suffering liver problems in the summer because during school breaks he didn't have that much access to food he could safely steal. Harry's teachers had no way of telling if he was being underfed or was naturally of smallish build. PS states explicitly Harry was *not* starved by the Dursleys, but was never allowed him to eat as much as he liked - no seconds, no desserts, but he did get the basics. His diet was probably closer to current recommendations than Dudley's.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

----Sleeping in a cupboard under the stairs never really bothered me, and really, how would anyone outside of the Dursleys know?

How would they hide it from any friends that Dudley had over to play? Would the other children really never notice that Harry didn't have a bedroom? In eleven years, would they really never see Harry entering or exiting the cupboard, even though they would have had to pass by it to get upstairs to Dudley's bedroom?

I guess it might have been doable if Dudley had rarely invited his friends inside the house, which might have been the case given that Petunia was such a neat freak.

I don't think it's clear if the Dursleys were semi-starving Harry or if he was just small for his age due to genetics. My parents always made sure that my brother and I were well-fed, yet we were always consistently the smallest kids in our classes.

As for the bullying, I'm about nine months younger than Harry would be. From what I can remember of my childhood, I think there was a lot more tolerance of bullying even 20 years ago than there is today.

Genetics or stunted by malnutrition?

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

If Harry was stunted by malnutrition, so was James Potter.

At least, as of SWM, Harry explictly notes that he and his father are within an inch of height of each other (and it's not even specified which is the taller, though most assume is must be James). James Potter is significantly (for a teen) older--we see James at his OWLS, 2-3 months after his sixteenth birthday in March, while the Harry making the observtion that they're nearly the same height is viewing the memory about 4 months shy of his sixteenth birthday.

If we compare two sixteen year olds, close relatives, one half a year older than the other, who are within an inch of height of each other, and affirn that one's height is due to having been stunted by deprivation, then so too must the other.

Poor neglected James!