If You Want to Know What a Man’s Like, Look at How He Treats His Inferiors
Sirius Black
One of the subplots in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is the mistreatment of a subset of the society called the house elves. Obviously using the term inferiors to show the one social class is beneath another in respect to the house elves in Harry Potters world.
The book “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” Hermione Granger showed anger after Bartemius Crouch treatment of the afore mentioned house elves.
The Impact of The Statement
This is not a unique story in history but the fact Rowling used it in a story targeted at children is impactful. No one can deny the virtue to which the principal stands on, one that has created social conflict in the world for centuries.
By using fiction the story provides a great lesson to use in the real world and with the obvious success and fandom of Harry Potter, many children and adults likely sympathize with such noble characterization.
While this story shows up in the twenty first century it does show it is possible to learn from history and present it in a compelling way to appeal to a mass audience who are impressionable.
Do Inferiors Exist Because We Use The Word “Inferior”?
Another interesting perspective is the premise that inferiors exist in the first place. Unfortunately, the world is built and some would suggest designed for social, economic or any number of ways to define a subset of people. There will be rich people and poor people.
The problem comes when rich people think they are better because of their wealth. This is just an example shows perfectly what Rowling was demonstrating albeit the term “inferiors” may actually bring a disservice to the message due to the stigma associated with the term.
Solution: Just Be Nice to Everyone
So in short, it is important to treat everyone with respect no matter what class they are however, it should be equally important that higher or lower class do not think of the other in a “less than” or “more than” terms.
