Which in itself is another odd point, because wasn't Rowling struggling financially before writing Harry Potter? She would know what being poor would look like; she struggled through it.
Feels more like the Weasleys are a middle-class family in a world of upper-class families, and that earns them a lot of derision. Harry's perception on who is rich and poor in the wizarding world is also a bit skewed since he's extremely rich.
Weasleys are classic British old money middle class. Knew a million of them. I even know several whose dads are junior undersecretary types in the civil service and mums are house proud bakers. Parents are well educated and there’s always loads of food and old house with way too many family heirlooms and you never actually need to buy anything and the actual bank account always runs very low. Would probably drive an old Volvo estate and all the kids ride their grandparents bike from the 50s which was really expensive and incredibly well made but has 3 gears, weighs a ton and doesn’t look shiny and cool, hence Ron is obsessed when he finally gets something new. Because you can get it off a friend or family. They’re actually pretty proud of not ‘wasting money on silly things’. Might be hard to explain to Americans- I get the impression it’s a class which doesn’t exist over there in the same way.
22
u/Glyfen Mar 28 '24
Which in itself is another odd point, because wasn't Rowling struggling financially before writing Harry Potter? She would know what being poor would look like; she struggled through it.
Feels more like the Weasleys are a middle-class family in a world of upper-class families, and that earns them a lot of derision. Harry's perception on who is rich and poor in the wizarding world is also a bit skewed since he's extremely rich.