The Trio's Morality

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 162551


> Sarah:
> I think the Sorting Hat forgot to say that "hypocrisy" is a Gryffindor
> trait.  I don't know whether that's authorial intent. 

Pippin:
It is, at least in the case of Sirius. 
http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/faq_view.cfm?id=61 
Sirius is very good at spouting bits of excellent personal philosophy, but 
he does not always live up to them. 

JKR goes on to say that most of us are like that. It's not, I think, that 
Gryffindors are more hypocritical than others by nature but that their 
hypocrisy is more glaring (and easier to make fun of) because their
standards are so high.

What would a hypocritical Slytherin do, profess Machiavellian self-
interest while blithely practicing altruism at every turn? <g>

Nor do I think hypocrisy is a JKR trait.

JKR's advice to RL kids who are being bullied is to  tell someone,

http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/faq_view.cfm?id=78 

but her characters seldom do that. I don't think this is authorial
hypocrisy, this is JKR showing us *why* people don't follow this
advice, and why they would often prefer to give the bully
a taste of his own medicine instead. 

But she also shows that in her world when you fight fire with
fire, everyone gets burned.   No one in canon has ever stopped 
being a bully because of punishment or retaliation (short of being 
totally incapacitated.) HBP makes clear that the Marauders were 
punished time and again for picking on other students. We
also know that Snape was in the habit of retaliating. But 
something changed James all the same.


We don't know what it was, but I'm betting it was not punishment
or retaliation. 

Pippin