JKR's lesson on prejudice

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 180534

Alla wrote:
> > 
> > Well, again Draco is not in Slytherin yet, isn't he? I am only 
talking about their initial meetings before they were sorted. 
> 
Geoff replied:
> Ah, but.....
> '"Know what house you'll be in yet?"
> "No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute.
> "Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, 
> but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been -"'
> 
> ( PS, "Diagon Alley", p.60 UK edition)
> 
> Enough to trigger Harry's alarm bells, I suspect.

Carol responds to both:

Okay, you're both right. Draco isn't in Slytherin yet, but he tells
Harry that he knows he will be (and he's right).

However, as the exchange also shows, Harry knows nothing at this point
about the Houses, so Draco's expecting to be Sorted into Slytherin has
no effect on Harry's view of him in this *initial* exchange. In fact,
except for being reminded strongly of Dudley by the "bullying Father"
remark, Harry's chief feeling throughout most of this conversation is
embarrassment at his ignorance ("feeling stupider by the minute"). He
doesn't know about the Houses or Quidditch; he doesn't have his own
broom. When Draco makes it clear that he doesn't know who Hagrid is,
Harry has a moment of superiority, "pleased to know something the boy
didn't." He starts disliking Draco rather emphatically when Draco
refers to Hagrid as "a sort of servant" (obviously reflecting the
attitude of his parents toward a mere gamekeeper). When he repeats the
(partially true) rumors he's heard, that Hagrid is "a sort of savage"
who "lives in a hut on the school grounds and every once in a while
gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed"
(AHA! moment--*That's where DD setting fire to his bedcurtains in the
GoF film comes from), Harry's reaction turns cold.

At that point, Draco (with a slight sneer at Harry's remark about
thinking Hagrid is "brilliant") turns the subject to Harry's
background, makes his remark about not letting "the other sort" in,
and asks his unanswered question about Harry's surname (a hint that
there's some sort of Wizarding aristocracy or "in group" to which he
considers himself to belong).

The conversation is interrupted by Madam Malkin telling Draco he's
done. Harry then asks Hagrid about Quidditch, comments about the boy's
saying that kids from Muggle families shouldn't be allowed into
Hogwarts, and asks about Slytherin and Hufflepuff, the two Houses
mentioned by the boy (whose name he still doesn't know). At that
point, Hagrid makes his "not a single witch or wizard who went bad who
wasn't in Slytherin" remark, noting that Voldemrot (erm, Voldemort)
was one of them. 

At that point, it seems to me, Harry's view of Slytherin is formed. He
doesn't like the boy who wants to be in Slytherin and seems to be
prejudiced against kids from Muggle families. And when Hagrid paints
Slytherin as the House of Voldemort and his followers, he knows for
sure that he doesn't want to be in that House. Better to be a
Dufferpuff. (all quotes from SS 77-80).

Then, on the Hogwarts Express, Draco enters Harry's and Ron's
compartment, flanked by two mean-looking, thickset boys, looking much
more interested in talking to Harry now that he knows who he is. He
introduces himself, along with Crabbe and Goyle (who don't even rate
having their first names announced), exchanges insults with Ron, tells
Harry that he can help him make friends with kids from the "better
families," and tries to shake Harry's hands. Harry refuses it, saying
that he can tell "the wrong sort" for himself.

Draco turns a bit pink and warns Harry that if he hangs around with
"riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid," he's likely to go the
same way as his parents. h eand Ron stand up and he tells Draco to get
out. Draco (I'd forgotten this detail) says that he and his friends
don't feel like leaving and suggests that his friends help themselves
to Ron's and Harry's food, at which point, Scabbers has his moment of
glory, biting Goyle's hand, and the trio of future Slytherins leave.

Ron tells Harry (in the hearing of Hermione, who has just showed up)
that the Malfoys had been on Voldemort's side but had claimed to be
"bewitched" when LV's supporters were being rounded up. He adds that
his father thinks Draco's father "didn't need an excuse to go over to
the Dark Side." that, of course, gives Harry yet more reason to
dislike Draco and associate Slytherin with Voldemort. (SS 108-110).

By the time of the Sorting Ceremony, then, he's developed the idea of
Slytherin that he retains until HBP and DH show him a more human side
of some of the Slytherins (including Draco). Learning that Snape is
the Head of Slytherin and favors his own students predisposes Harry to
see Snape's treatment of himself and Neville in the worst possible
light. He goes to bed dreaming of the Sorting Hat, which seemed to
think he might do well in Slytherin, Quirrell's turban (which he
perhaps senses is somehow connected with LV), Draco turning into Snape
and laughing Voldemort's high, cold laugh, followed by a flash of
green light (SS 132). It's as if he doesn't distinguish one from
another an eleven-year-old boy from the teacher who seems to have made
his scar hurt (though he hasn't yet met him) from the Dark Wizard who
killed his parents. Snape and Draco are Slytherins; Slytherin is
Voldemort's House; Voldemort is evil; therefore Snape and Draco and
everyone else associated with Slytherin is evil.

I would say that he isn't prejudiced against Draco and certainly not
against a House he's never heard of when he meets Draco in Madam
Malkin's, and he develops his dislike of Draco based primarily on
Draco's own words and actions, but the combination of Draco himself
and the comments of Hagrid, Ron, and Percy predisposes him to reject
Slytherin and everything he thinks it stands for. By the time he
attends his first Potions class, he's thoroughly prejudiced against
Slytherin and dislike Snape, with the events in that class seeming to
confirm that prejudgment.

As for Draco, he's certainly predisposed to favor Slytherin, look down
on Muggle-borns, and sneer at the Weasleys and Hagrid. Nothing else is
to be expected of an eleven-year-old, who is imitating the attitudes
and behavior he sees at home. (Harry, not being part of the WW and not
having any parents to pass on their attitudes to him, forms his
prejudgments on the experiences of a few days and the comments of
people he has only recently met.)

Carol, who can't get off the phone and hopes that this post isn't full
of uncaught errors