[HPforGrownups] Re: Social Correlates of Hogwarts Houses

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 174986

Nita:
Valuing blood purity is an extension of loyalty to family. Consider
Hermione's gradual, seemingly inevitable alienation from her parents,
or the Lily/Petunia situation. When Muggleborns join the WW, they
practically have to abandon their families. From a family-centric
point of view, how can someone who does that be trusted? [snip]

The second:

Same as above, but it's been taken to unreasonable lengths right from
the start thanks to Salazar's ageing, slipping, paranoid mind. He was
described as "ancient", wasn't he? Hence the over-the-top Chamber of
Secrets.

The third:

JKR threw blood purity into the Slytherin list of requirements because
she decided that the cunning, ambitious folk will be the Bad Guys, so
they also must be merciless bigots (otherwise they might be too easy
to sympathize with, for instance).

Debbie:
I'll take door #3.

Theoretically, sorting students into Houses with the characteristics of the
Hogwarts Houses (excepting the pureblood part) should be a benign exercise,
tracking (as they do but for the pureblood bit) the Jungian types (which I
believe have been discussed ad nauseam of late).  Slytherin's pureblood
mania, however, poisoned the House system and Slytherin house in particular
from the very beginning.  By not excising Slytherin's brain from the Sorting
Hat when Slytherin left the school, the remaining Founders set the stage for
Voldemort's rise.

The Sorting Hat further aided and abetted Slytherin's so-called noble work
to purge Hogwarts of Muggleborns by taking into account two things in the
sorting process:  ancestry and preference.  In this way, the Hat kept
Slytherin House free of Muggleborns who might have ameliorated muggleborn
prejudice while filling it with cunning young bigots who would do anything
-- including Dark Magic -- to achieve their ends.  What a gold mine for
Voldemort to tap! It's no wonder that by the Snape era, Slytherin has become
the equivalent of the Hitler Youth, or that the Hat thought Snape, armed
with enough curses to defeat a seventh year, would fit right into
Slytherin.  The Hat obviously put Snape in Slytherin because it thought
Snape would like it there.

So, when the Sorting Hat finally makes its desperate call for House unity in
OOP, it's to contain the monster the Hat itself has created, and that
monster is Slytherin House.  Thus, despite the words of the song, the
Sorting Hat itself probably has no expectation of real house unity, and that
what it really expects is that the other three houses will join together to
excise the Death Eater cancer from Slytherin.  And Dumbledore's comment that
"we sort too soon" is an implicit recognition of the Hat's deplorable
contribution to the current state of affairs.

Slytherin House is a prison, just like the DEs are prisoners.  The Malfoys
don't want to be there, and haven't wanted to be there since the end of
VWI.  The evidence now seems to suggest that they sent the Lestranges after
the Longbottoms and made sure they were caught to get them and their
inconvenient desire to track down the Dark Lord out of the way.  They don't
want Voldemort at Malfoy Manor.  Draco wants out of his Crucio job.  Their
presence in the Great Hall after Voldemort's defeat was in fact rather
poignant; though huddled and wondering if they belonged there, the presence
of at least some Slytherins is a positive sign for the future.

It's not surprising, though, that no Slytherin chose to stay and fight the
DEs.  Harry's Slytherin contemporaries at Hogwarts all appear to have very
strong family ties, and those ties are to Death Eater families.  In that
light, I think it's unreasonable to expect any Slytherins to stick around.
Given the way Voldemort generally reacts to bad news, they would likely be
putting their families in special danger if they did so.  So, there's a lot
of truth in choice #1 as well.

Lupinlore:
I see what you mean. However, going with canon, it doesn't seem that
JKR would agree. Her notions of leadership make her extremely
suspicious of ambition and cunning -- which is odd considering how
large those figure in DD's character. Yet, I think we are meant to
see those aspects of Dumbledore as problematic, and DD himself
indicates as much. Indeed, I'd say the closest we have to a clear
statement on leadership from JKR is when Dumbledore says that you
probably should never give power to someone who wants it -- i.e.
don't give it to him, and don't give it to a Slytherin.

Debbie:
That JKR is wary of ambition has been evident at least since GoF, and it's
one of the main fault lines in the series.  The Sorting Hat can pontificate
about House unity all day, but JKR seems not to have meant to include
Slytherin in that equation.  Yet practical Slytherin-style ambition provides
the leadership is essential to getting things done.

Granted, too much ambition may result in a power-hungry despot, but too much
bravery makes one foolhardy, and JKR shows us that too much cleverness can
produce a Xenophilius Lovegood or an Ollivander, so caught up in the inner
workings of his chosen field of study that he fails to notice that moral and
ethical questions come into play.

 I never had any illusions about the dismantling of the House system,
disgustingly dysfunctional as it is. Voldemort proposes to eliminate the
House system on the basis that *only* Slytherin traits are to be valued.
JKR retains the entire House system -- including Slytherin -- implying that
the traits of all four houses should be valued, minus the pureblood mania,
of course.  And if we're lucky, the Hat has learned something from
Voldemort's attempt to burn it at the stake, and has stopped trying to stock
Slytherin House with pureblood fanatics and Dark Wizards in training.  If
only the Hat would stop giving choices to eleven year olds, then the sorting
system might work properly.  For the first time ever.

Debbie
suspecting that she rambled way too long and threw in the kitchen sink


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