That's exactly the way I see Muggleborns as well. They're just not in any way analogous to a minority in, say, America for all the reasons you mention. Someone can call a person in the majority a name too, but it's different. Hermione does not relate to her world as a minority--and why should see? Far from being shut out of anything, she's more of an insider than most students. She's even been given pretty much every position of authority that came her way. As you said, it's Ron and the Weasleys who are angered by the term Mudblood, possibly because they do, after all, see a difference where Hermione and Harry don't.
Unfortunately the racism against Muggles seems completely fine by everyone in the story, save for a few token speeches about treating them well by people who also use magic against them.
I don't think he'll ever completely get over the Pureblood prejudice because it's too ingrained, but I do think his actions in the next book will put him on the right side.
I really do hope that's the way it's going--and hopefully not just because I like the character. It really just seems like the "right" way to go. Other versions seem more pointlessly bleak in ways that the series doesn't seem to do. They are, in a very real way, no victory at all--any more than Voldemort's defeat in chapter one of PS was. I wouldn't want to see the Pureblood culture completely destroyed either, after all. I found the destruction of the Black House depressing in OotP. Everyone doesn't have to be exactly the same.
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Date: 2005-12-04 07:42 pm (UTC)Unfortunately the racism against Muggles seems completely fine by everyone in the story, save for a few token speeches about treating them well by people who also use magic against them.
I don't think he'll ever completely get over the Pureblood prejudice because it's too ingrained, but I do think his actions in the next book will put him on the right side.
I really do hope that's the way it's going--and hopefully not just because I like the character. It really just seems like the "right" way to go. Other versions seem more pointlessly bleak in ways that the series doesn't seem to do. They are, in a very real way, no victory at all--any more than Voldemort's defeat in chapter one of PS was. I wouldn't want to see the Pureblood culture completely destroyed either, after all. I found the destruction of the Black House depressing in OotP. Everyone doesn't have to be exactly the same.