It's odd rereading the HP books after several years...

It's cartoonish in the books, too, almost painfully so. It's probable they were nicer to Harry when he was very small, at least until he got old enough to talk back.

And I'm not so sure they were all that vile. Granted they weren't nice to him, but they did feed and clothe and house him--adequately if not well. The responsibility was forced on them against their wills; they didn't want to take care of him, but they did. And they may have wanted to "cure" Harry of his magical talent for his own good--Petunia knew what happened to Lily and James.

Earth without art is just "eh."

If keeping a kid under the age of 11 locked up in a cupboard and making him sleep there for years is not vile, I don't know what is. The implication was they were always awful to him because Dursley's actions were considered common to Harry by the time he turned 11.

Sorry, but I guess you don't know what is. The fact that they put him in a small place to sleep does not equate to "vile." It's not particularly kind, but it's not "vile." The "cupboard" couldn't have been all that small, since there was room for a bed, and Harry wasn't "locked up". Making him go without supper was a far worse punishment than making him stay in his room, small as it was.

If the Dursleys had truly been vile to Harry, he wouldn't have been the smartass he was at the beginning of the story. He talked back to all the Dursleys; he jumped on his uncle's back trying to get his letter; at the hut he was going to wake Dudley up just to annoy him. Do you really think he'd dare to behave like that if the Dursleys had been "vile" to him? As I said, they didn't treat him well, but they weren't "vile" either.

Earth without art is just "eh."

You call that behavior being smartass. U don't know the definition then. When did he talk back to the Dursleys in the first book? He was pretty resigned and submissive until the letters started coming in. So I don't know what your definition of being a smart ass is but the way he behaved was not being a smart ass. As for sleeping, he was a small boy. It's was a tiny bed in the cupboard under the stairs. It wasn't even a room. That is a vile way to treat someone so young. And not to mention they did often not give him food when his magic acted up.

And I bet even reading the parts that didn't make it in the movie, if I remember correctly the beginning of Cahmber of secrets the Malfoys were in a little bit more then what they showed in the movie.

i find the Dursleys too exaggeratedly awful. they are like characters from a Roald dahl story. A few things about them are just too unrealistic. for instance - they could not possibly get away wtih sending harry to school in clothes much too big for him - schools in the UK are very fussy about school uniform and would be bound to kick up a fuss about it. No way would they accept a pupil dressing like that. Likewise his broken spectacles - someone from the school would be round asking why the Dursleys didn't get them fixed. and social services would be bound to find out about him sleeping in the cupboard. I agree that hwving her show some affection for harry would be more realistic.

I would have loved to believe that nobody in real life could that awful to a child, who was their close relative at that. But alas, there are some twisted people out there. JK Rowling has also publically said at some point, that she didn't intend the Dursleys to be that exaggerated. She too lives in the UK and obviously meant their awful behavior to be totally plausible. And a school won't always do anything about abuse and neglect either, no matter how they should do it. Some people just won't notice all those signs, and others will just want to stay out of other people's business. So many cases will fall through the cracks, especially if the family is wealthy middle class like the Dursleys were. And from the little that we know about Harry's time in Primary School, it seems like the teachers were willing to only see him as a little trouble-maker. And if a kid is branded with that reputation, he will get little to no sympathy from the teachers.

Intelligence and purity.

I'm onto OOTP and I forgot how annoying Harry was in this book. For the first half of the book he's perpetually ill-tempered. It's understandable because the book is basically a bunch of misery heaped on Harry one after another, but it's kind of annoying to read. GOF on the other hand, was just brilliant. I love how the book completely opened up the magical world and the central plot and the twists were outstanding.