Disappointment and Responsibility - Calvinism & the Sorting Hat

[lizzyben04]

No: HPFGUIDX 175156

> Debbie:
> I agree with at least 90% of Pippin's post, but on this point, I think
> lizzyben is right.  Too many children arrive at Hogwarts with
stereotyped
> opinions of the houses and what each one stands for.  For Harry,
Slytherin
> was Voldemort's house and Draco's house.  Snape thought it was the
house of
> brains.  Though it's not clear, Sirius appears to have thought it
was the
> pureblood pride house.  As long as the Sorting Hat allows children
to plead
> "Slytherin!" or "Not Slytherin!" on the basis of such prejudices, the
> imbalance will be perpetuated.
> 
> I once speculated that the Sorting Hat attempted an Ignation study
of each
> child with the objective of placing them, not in the house that was an
> obvious match, but in the house that would enable them to develop a
hidden
> talent.  The prime example of this would be Hermione, who seemed an
obvious
> candidate for Ravenclaw but would not have developed her bravery
there.  I
> still think this would be a much better system, one which would promote
> understanding -- and unity -- among the houses.

lizzyben:

The sorting hat is just messed up, & is responsible for a lot of the
deep-set problems in the WW. I really liked your characterization of
the hat as "Undesirable Number One". Throwing out that Hat would be
one of the best, quickest ways of actually reforming this horrid
system. Like you say, children at age eleven have no idea what they
want or what the Houses are all about, yet they are sorted for life.
The tribalism & stereotypes each House has about the other are only
strengthened by House rivalries, and the insularity is only
strengthened by the lack of exposure to people who are different. 

And Slytherin House, especially, is a hot-bed of bigotry
& dark arts that's guaranteed to churn out more Dark Lords. And each
year, a new crop of children are sent there to be indoctrinated. Snape
is a good example of the dangers of this system. Riddle was born evil,
Harry was apparently born good, but Snape was somewhere in between. He
had an unloved childhood, and a desperate need for acceptance &
approval. As a child, he didn't have any prejudice against
Muggle-borns, and thinks Slytherin house is for "brains." So he wants
to be in Slytherin House, and is thereafter DOOMED. Because Snape is
totally vulnerable to the negative influences of that House - that's
his new home, his new family, and he quickly begins to adopt their
beliefs in order to get the acceptance he needs. His housemates are
almost all Death Eater wanna-bes, and use racist language that Snape
also picks up. Peer pressure is an incredibly strong force, especially
when the students live in that environment apart from other
influences. Slytherin house effectively turns kids into Death Eaters.
If Snape had been in a different house, his whole life might have been
different. I accept the contention that Slytherin is evil, negative,
bigoted, a bad influence, etc. So, at the end of the novels, WHY is it
still there? 

This is where it starts to seem like this is less about reconciliation
& reform, and more about predestination. Some people are destined to
enter Slytherin, and some are destined to enter Gryffindor, because of
their intrinsic natures. Just as Calvinism contends that some
people (the elect) are predestined & selected for salvation, and some
are destined from birth for damnation. Calvinism states that no one
can know until they die which group they are in - if God has selected
them to be in the divine elect or the reprobate. But what if the
Sorting Hat is meant to be a symbol of this divine sorting? What if
the hat does what a Calvinist God does - it looks in your soul &
shouts out your predestined place in the elect or the damned. If this
is true, Slytherin house is there because it represents the
counterweight to the Gryffindor elect. You can't have a "divine elect"
of saved without also having a house for the reprobate unsaved.

Calvinism has five central tenets (from Wikipedia - please correct me,
anyone, if this is wrong).

"1. Total Depravity (also known as Total Inability and Original Sin) -
this point means that every person is corrupt and sinful throughout in
all of his or her faculties, including the mind and will. As a result
of this corruption, man is enslaved to sin, rebellious and hostile
toward God, blind to truth, and unable to save himself or even prepare
himself for salvation."

"2. Unconditional Election - Before God created the world, he chose to
save some people according to his own purposes and apart from any
conditions related to those persons. In Protestant theology, election
is considered to be one aspect of predestination in which God selects
certain individuals to be saved. Those elected receive mercy, while
those not elected, the reprobate, receive justice."

3.Limited Atonement (also known as Particular Atonement)- The doctrine
states that Jesus Christ's substitutionary atonement on the cross is
limited in scope to those who are predestined unto salvation and its
primary benefits are not given to all of humankind but rather just
believers.

4.Irresistible Grace - the saving grace of God is effectually applied
to those whom he has determined to save (the elect) and, in God's
timing, overcomes their resistance to obeying the call of the gospel.

5. Perseverance of the Saints (also known as Once Saved Always Saved)
- God successfully preserves in faith all of the elect so that they
are never lost. It maintains that none who are truly saved can be
condemned for their sins or finally fall away from the faith." 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_points_of_Calvinism

IMO, the sorting hat ceremony seems like a perfect metaphor for this
sort of divine selection. The Sorting Hat looks into people's souls &
sees their predetermined destiny, and sorts them accordingly - the
"divine elect" are sorted into Gryffindor, while the reprobate go to
Slytherin. And if Harry & co are in the elect, they will always
maintain that position, even if they use Unforgivable Curses. Harry
might resist the call of his destiny to save the wizarding world, but
because he is in the elect, he will eventually do the right thing
through divine grace. 

And this also explains why destroying the Sorting Hat is a bad thing.
I personally think they should get rid of it, & it seems like many
people think that the Sorting Hat's criteria should be changed or
reformed, but that's not what happens in the book. Instead,
*Voldemort* is the one who tries to destroy the hat, and Harry, the
hero, preserves it. This is presented as a major climactic moment -
like preserving the Sorting Hat is a vital mission. Why? When LV tries
to destroy it, he says "there will be no more Sorting, there will be
no more Houses," and that the emblems of "Slytherin will suffice for
everyone". Under Calvinism, man is naturally "totally depraved" &
unworthy of salvation - only God's selection of a chosen divine elect
allows some to avoid this fate. So if the Sorting Hat truly represents
the selection of the saved "elect", by destroying the Hat, LV is
essentially condemning everyone to damnation. THAT'S why it's so bad.


Julie added:
Well, and this is interesting in light of the "Is the WW a Calvinist
place" discussion. The treatment of the Slytherins as uniformly (OK,
NEARLY uniformly) "bad" might bolster that
idea. But this particular scene apparently does not. Because JKR
implies that being stuck at the afterlife 'station' as a tortured,
agonized, immobile, un-helpable child is a fate that LV
could avoid, if only he could do some last-ditch soul-repair via the
remorse remedy... But it does imply that even a guy who's the epitome
of eeevvvviillll could turn things around extremely late in the game.

lizzyben:

Ah, but can he? Voldemort is portrayed as a psychopath, evil from
birth, unable to feel real emotion or empathy. Asking LV to feel
remorse is like asking pigs to fly - can't be done. LV is destined to
become that agonized creature because he is totally incapable of
remorse - which seems to reinforce DD's message that the creature
cannot be helped. This also seems to support the Calvinist notion of
salvation & damnation - LV's soul can't be helped, because he was
predestined for damnation. There really weren't a whole lot of choices
for Voldemort, being born a evil psychopath and all. So, if anything,
I'd say that the characterization of LV actually reinforces the
message of predetermination. 

And I think it is possible to interpret King's Cross as a sort of
general metaphor for Calvinism - DD & Harry, as part of the Divine
Elect, proceed to heaven with undamaged souls, while the reprobate are
damned to agony & suffering. Because the selection of the "elect" &
"reprobate" has been predetermined, there is no way possible to help
the reprobates or change that destiny. I guess you could argue that
readers are supposed to take the message that DD or Harry should've
helped that soul - but they don't, & IMO the text doesn't suggest that
they should. DD is the mentor, who tells Harry not to help. Harry, the
hero, listens to DD & learns to ignore the creature. If anything, IMO
the message is that it truly isn't possible to help.

> Debbie:
> I do agree here that the complete and immediate rehabilitation of
Slytherin
> house would have been highly implausible and incredibly saccharine.
 It's a
> slow process that can be fully accomplished by building up a new
generation
> that wasn't raised on the old prejudices, for while Harry intellectually
> understands this, so that he can endorse Slytherin house as an
appropriate
> house for his son, his relationship with Slytherins of his own
generation
> will never be more than formally cordial; there's too much water
under the
> bridge.  It's up to the Albus/Rose/Scorpius generation to do that,
and the
> epilogue contains just enough hints to allow us to believe, if we
choose,
> that this can be accomplished.
> 
> But only if the Hat doesn't subvert the whole thing.


lizzyben:

It's interesting that we're all still trying to form a hopeful
reconciliation narrative for the next generation of students. I
understand it, cause it's really, really, hard to accept
that we're just supposed to dismiss Slytherins as "bad guys", but IMO
it seems like that's what the text is portraying. It would have been
very easy to give hints of reconciliation in the next generation -
Albus & Scorpius sit in the same compartment together; Ron telling
Rose it's OK to have Slytherin friends, etc. We're speculating about
signs like that, but it isn't in the epilogue. JKR made the choice
*not* to show reconciliation in the next generation, just as there
wasn't reconciliation in Harry's generation. It's basically set back
to zero. And that's because Slytherin House really is filled
w/horrible awful people that they probably won't be friends with, and
probably should avoid.  

I don't think anyone expected a Hallmark ending & total redemption of
the House, but many readers did expect some type of reconciliation.
But that wasn't what the book gave, and I think we have to conclude
that that's because reconciliation & co-existence wasn't the intended
message of the book. It really does seem like the Houses were meant to
represent a type of Calvinist divine sorting. 


lizzyben