[HPforGrownups] Re: Deathly Hallows Reaction - Could do Better, Sorry

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 172705

nightmasque at yahoo.com writes:
>I don't think that was the point at all. I think the
>point Betsy was making was that it was simplistic of
>Rowling to divide the good and bad people into
>Gryffindors and Slytherins respectively; to use your
>analogy, it would be like saying all Slytherins are
>terrorists, and all Gryffindors are defendors of
>liberty and freedom and all that good stuff. It has
>been pointed out elsewhere that all the Slytherins who
>were on the 'good side' so to speak were given
>ulterior motives for doing so, i.e. Snape's was Lily.
>I myself can't think of (m)any Slytherins who were
>shown to be on the good side (mainly) because they
>were good innately; therefore the message of this book
>at least seemed to be that Slytherin = Bad, no
>exceptions. Which IS an ugly message to be putting out
>there.

Bart:
Well, we actually know of 3 "good" Slytherins: Snape, Slug, and Phin. Based on what we've learned from them, a major trait they have is a belief that the end justifies the means. Consider that, with only a few exceptions, none of the Slytherins fought on the side of the DE's, either. It wasn't whether they were good or evil, it was that they figured that whichever side came out on top, they would ally themselves with it. Gryffindors fight for their goals, Hufflepuffs work for them, Ravenclaws think their way through, and Slytherins look for a shortcut. 

Bart