The Houses again (was Re: DH as Christian Allegory

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 173499

 
Anders wrote:
I didn't read as much negativity into Jo's Slytherin descriptions as  you
seemed to get from them. To me, she was showing us that there are all  kinds
of people in this world, and some of them aren't as nice as others,  but
there were also Slytherins who turned out good. Harry Potter wasn't  killed
by Slytherins, he was killed by the evil which possessed Tom Riddle,  who was
a descendant of Slytherin, and seemed to have been possessed by the  same
evil attitude.

 
Julie:
You may be right, but where the real negativity comes in is from the  other
Houses. They all hate Slytherins. They boo whenever anyone is sorted  into
Slytherin. Slytherin is deliberately portrayed as the outcast house  (which I
supposed made it a good fit for Snape!). To students in the other  Houses,
just being Slytherin means you are undesirable, bad, "other." 


Anders:
Slughorn didn't hate muggles although he was quite self-serving,  and even
Harry himself would likely have been a Slytherin had he not fought  against
it.  It seemed to me that even Slytherin himself wasn't always a  bad guy,
since it said that at first all the houses got along. It was only  after
Slytherin developed his deep prejudice against muggles and mudbloods  that
problems erupted in the house system. He became obsessed with his own  ideas,
and his obsession was handed down through the generations of his  family. I
think Jo was also telling us that people who have a tendency toward  cunning
and self-serving can sometimes be steered into the wrong direction by  people
who play upon those tendencies. And she was telling us that sometimes  we
should question the things we've been told by our parents, such as,  "Only
purebloods are worthy." By the time Harry entered school, it seemed to  me
that Slytherin House had been corrupted by Salazar's ideas. It had  nothing
to do with who he was or what he looked like, although I must agree  that I
hadn't pictured him as monkey-like in my own mind, but rather as one  who was
very tall, handsome and haughty in manner who had developed a sneer  over
time. 

I thought Jo fought against the labeling idea when Sirius  told Harry that
the world isn't divided into Death Eaters and good guys. I  thought the
biggest example of that in the last book was her treatment of  Snape. He had
both good and bad tendencies, and he had been part of both  worlds at various
times. And finally, I thought by continuing with the  sorting hat, I thought
she was telling us that it's okay to be in a group  with others of similar
tastes and abilities as long as one group doesn't  begin to think they are
superior to others. I thought she was telling us that  it wasn't the sorting
which had caused the evil, but the bad ideas passed  down from Slytherin's
twisted mind which found fertile ground in some of  those with qualities
associated with Slytherin House.  In book one we  were also told that those
same qualities could make a person great, and there  were many Slytherins who
had made good, as evidenced by Horace Slughorn's  friends. Jo also showed us
negative qualities in Sirius who was a Gryffindor,  Ernie MacMillan who was
Hufflepuff, and Cho, who was Ravenclaw. I didn't feel  Jo was slurring all
Asians when Cho turned out to be, IMO, shallow.
 
Julie:
Again your analysis may be right. Here is my problem. WHY, WHY, WHY
would you put eleven year old CHILDREN into a House that has been  corrupted,
that is "fertile ground" for bringing out the very worst in qualities they  
*already*
so strongly possess? For me it's not about the qualities themselves, which  as
you say can be used for good or bad, but that Slytherin House is  
allowed--nay,
actively encouraged by its rejection and isolation from the other  Houses, and
by the fact that its very existence in its acknowledged "corrupted" state 
continues without an iota of interference--to pound these  corrupted ideals
into the minds of CHILDREN.
 
So for me it's not Slytherin House per se, but what it has *become* that is  
the
problem, though the real bigger problem is that no one, from the  Headmaster
and teachers at Hogwarts, to all the other "good" people in the WW, have  not 
a
single compunction about dumping these kids into the "Death  Eaters in 
Training"
house. Talk about paving the way to your own graves, or reaping what you  sow!
(Which, granted, may have been part of JKR's point. But I did want to see  
some 
indication in the end that the Hogwarts and the WW in general got the point  
too--
though the Sorting Hat apparently did get the point some time  ago--and while 
Harry's
comment to little AlSev might have indicated that he got the point, it  
didn't seem
to go beyond that.)


IMO,
Julie 





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