[HPforGrownups] Reacting to DH (was:Snape Reduced LONG(was: Re: Villain!Dumbledore...

[Janette]

No: HPFGUIDX 177997

On 10/16/07, lizzyben04 <lizzyben04 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Jeanette:
> Slytherins are the rich children of the powerful people.  They have
> always existed, they go to the right schools and do the right jobs,
> and run the
> country when they are older.  While they are young, they are obnoxious.
> a lot of them do a lot of good in their lives.  Others don't.
> <snip>
> Gryffindors are poor but honest...  (drawing with a very broad brush
> here - bear with me please).  Some marry up, some end up feckless and
> lawless, but basically we are talking about the backbone of the
> country, who do the normal jobs that keep the world turning.
>
> lizzyben:
>
> Well, one problem with that view is that Slytherins/Gryffindors aren't
> really divided by socio-economic level. Snape was working-class, yet
> was sorted Slytherin. Riddle was totally indigent, yet sorted
> Slytherin. You get the sense that the Gaunts are all "Slytherins," yet
> they live in a shack w/a snake nailed to the door! Not exactly running
> the world. The Potters are Gryffindors, and they are incredibly rich
> and one of the oldest families in the Wizarding World. Justin
> Finch-Fletchley is from a rich aristocratic family, yet is sorted
> Hufflepuff. I would've maybe agreed w/this view a few books ago, but
> now it seems like socioeconomic level has little to do with the
> Sorting - it's character that matters.


montims:
yes - I had said I was painting with a broad brush - evidently the houses
aren't split by socio-economic criteria, and equally evidently, the real
world is.  I was trying to draw some kind of a parallel, while making the
point that just because a person belongs to one class, or one House, it
doesn't make that person evil or good for that reason, and I don't believe
that was what JKR was intending to convey, despite some comments I have read
which imply that she has written a Slytherin = evil, Gryffindor = good book,
whether intentionally or unintentionally.  I agree that it's character that
matters.

I would also add that after my first reading of DH, my head was in a whirl.
It was only my second and third readings that settled things down for me...


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