[HPforGrownups] Crow With a Side of Crow (LOOONG)

[Ginger McElwee]

No: HPFGUIDX 172851

Sydney wrote:

> I don't know, maybe she's right, and people's personalities do get 
> fixed that early and it would be great if there was a magic hat so 
> we could segregate out the Bad Children. 


I disagree with most of what you say in your post, but I understand how you arrive at your conclusions.  On this point, however, I think you have misunderstood a couple of things.  First, personality is, if not fixed, at least largely formed by the time a child is eleven.  That does not mean that a child's choices for the rest of his/her life are fixed.  It means that a person is basically heroic or ambitious or hard working or fascinated with knowledge. Those are the qualities of the houses.  They have nothing to do with being bad or good.  They simply describe the basis on which a person is
likely to make choices. There is no reason to assume that everyone who is ambitious is evil or that every person who is heroic is good.  

I don't think Rowling suggests this connection.  I think she acknowledges that ambitious people make decisions based on their own interest rather than the interest of others, and this can create a problem; but even within the confines of the Harry novels, there are ample examples of good or neutral Slytherins.  Only our main characters are examined in enough detail for the reader to
make conclusions about whether the person is good or bad, and the
quintessential Slytherin, Malfoy, is presented as weak rather evil. 

Ginger