Evil and Slytherin

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 38883

Delurking and making my first post in fear and trembling...

James (Archaologee) writes <38878>

>Slytherins....

>The books are told from Harry's pov.

>Harry was almost put in slytherin.

>He dislikes the people from slytherin he encounters and holds his 
>own house paramount.

>Of course he sees the slytherins a evil, he was so worried that he 
>was almost put there he even goes for a second opinion (whilst left 
>alone in Dumbledore's office) he loves his house and doubts himself, 
>he wants to bury any idea that he may belong anywhere else. So... He 
>vilifies the other place to make it easier to defend his inclusion in 
>the place he wants to be.

>Forgive the pop. psycology (some of my friends would kill me for 
>that), I know it's not that simple - but it does explain why he is so 
>unwilling to see good in the Slytherins or the vitues of that house 
>(despite Dumbledore's championing of their cause - a sign that JKR 
>doesn't see them as all evil)


I think James has a good point there. Harry is very unwilling to see 
any good in Slytherin - and we are seeing things exclusively from his 
pov. 

We know that one of JKR's themes throughout the books is the unfair 
way the WW treats many minority groups-particularly in PoA and GoF - 
and usually Harry, who was brought up outside the WW, can see this 
very clearly, and doesn't buy into it. But I'm beginning to wonder.

Harry's opinion of Slytherin is first coloured by his meeting with 
Draco - who he doesn't like, and who spouts some pretty nasty 
opinions (PS/SS, UK paperback pp 60-61). Then he gets told about 
Slytherin by Hagrid:
     "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in 
Slytherin. You-know-who was one." (pp 61-62)

At this point, Hagrid is almost the only person eleven year old Harry 
can remember who's ever been nice to him. He doesn't know anything 
about the WW, and he's going to treat whatever Hagrid says as 'true'.
And certainly, most of the non-Slytherin WW shares the same opinion.

Thereafter he sees House Slytherin through that prejudice - he is 
consistently told that Snape is trustworthy, but doesn't trust him; 
he notices only Draco and his nasty little gang and dismisses 
evidence of 'good' Slytherins - in GoF how much courage did it take 
for that minority of Slytherins to stand up and salute him? (GoF, UK 
hardback p627) He assumes that being in Slytherin would have been bad 
for him - despite the Sorting Hat twice telling him he'd have done 
well there, and despite the fact that in CoS Dumbledore never says 
that being in Slytherin would have been bad for him - he only says 
that Harry has chosen to be a true Gryffindor (CoS, UK paperback 
p.244-245)

The question is, is 'ain't no such thing as a good Slytherin' JKR's 
own opinion? Or are the readers being set up for a nice big bang? 
Where Harry has to acknowledge that he has his own nasty little 
prejudices - or that, like Draco, he has taken on his father's 
prejudices?

Pip
(who will now sneak away and hope this hasn't already been discussed 
in detail).