Mybelovedmoon

House elf speech patterns and the ‘happy slave’ trope

The way house-elves speak with their exaggerated, broken syntax, subject verb disagreements, and deferential tone bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the way enslaved people have been depicted in film, particularly in movies that glorify the antebellum south.

Take Winky’s syntax :

“But I knows Dobby too, sir!” squeaked the elf. She was shielding her face, as though blinded by light, though the Top Box was not brightly lit. “My name is Winky, sir — and you, sir — ” Her dark brown eyes widened to the size of side plates as they rested upon Harry’s scar. “You is surely Harry Potter!”

Then there’s Dobby:

“Dobby has traveled the country for two whole years, sir, trying to find work!” Dobby squeaked. “But Dobby hasn’t found work, sir, because Dobby wants paying now!”

Even Kreacher, who has a slightly different speech pattern still broadly speaks in the similar affected way.

“Kreacher did not see Young Master,” he said, turning around and bowing to Fred. Still facing the carpet, he added, perfectly audibly, “Nasty little brat of a blood traitor it is.”

This linguistic pattern is not unfamiliar. Compare it to:

Mammy from Gone with the Wind: Miss Melly, this here's done broke her heart. But I didn't fetch you on Miss Scarlett's account. What that child got to stand, the good Lord give her strength to stand. It's Mr. Rhett I's worried about. He done lost his mind these last couple of days

Or Uncle Remus in Song of the South. “Oh, I knows. I knows. I’m just a worn-out ol’ man what don’t do nothin’ but tell stories. But they ain’t never done no harm to nobody.”

The same tropes are at play. Stilted, infantilising speech. These films, particularly Gone with the Wind and Song of the South, glorify the antebellum South by presenting enslaved characters as devoted, content, even protective of their oppressors.

This is where the argument that house-elves aren’t slaves but brownies falls down. If house-elves were truly just magical beings with their own culture, their speech wouldn’t so closely mimic the linguistic markers of servitude used in films that softened the horrors of slavery.

Also intended or not this is a racialised coding that was once used to uphold and justify the absolute abomination of slavery and we should be critical of it.

Me looking through AO3: ughhh I need to find a fic to read

My 62 open AO3 tabs: 👁️👄👁️

My loves <3

the best fanfic is the one the author had fun writing actually.

Time to listen to some records 💫

Little moony doodle for the soul <33

if you only want to write smutty drabbles, write smutty drabbles. if you don't want to write smut at all, don't write smut. if you want to write tropes that have been written 85838593929 times, write them. if you've already written a specific trope and want to write it again, do it. if you want to write for a character but feel like there's no demand for that character, do it anyway. don't feel pressured to reach a certain word count, don't feel pressured to stick to a posting schedule. you're literally doing this for FREE, in your free time. whatever YOU want your writing/fanfiction experience to be is valid - it doesn't have to be like everyone else's, and you don't have to cater to what you think people want 🫶🏻

does anybody have those characters where they just like dump loads of trauma on them? Like you are literally my favourite character...... butttttt you need to go through some shit first please and thank you.

i’m sure i’m as tired as he is

“these characters should be mentally healthy before they get together 😌” ummm no I actually think we should smash their mental illnesses together like clumps of play-doh and see what colors it makes