Loose Ends, (was Epilogue (was Re: Ron and Parseltongue)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 183313

> 
> Potioncat:
> The Good Slytherin wasn't one of JKR's threads, it was all ours. If
I  had time, I'd go back to look for his (or her) origin. It had to do 
with an expected reversal of image. As I imagined the Good Slytherin, 
his purpose was to show Harry and the reader that stereotypes aren't 
necessarily true. I thought Theo Nott would be The Good Slyhterin. 
> <sigh>  

Pippin:
Trouble is, a reversed negative stereotype is still a stereotype. It's
still a preconceived image, and it's demeaning. It's  a message about
how members of a certain group should behave which other groups are
presumed not to need. Nobody thinks JKR let us down by not showing us
a Good Ravenclaw or a Good Hufflepuff, right? 

If we had a Good Slytherin, then we'd be dividing Slytherins into Good
Slytherins and Bad Slytherins, and I'd hate to think that's what JKR
wants us to do when real groups are being criticized. If all the
Slytherins (or the Muggles) are bad in a certain way, it's because all
humanity is bad in that way -- all of us are prejudiced, all of us
look dumb to Insiders, and all of us are cowards when we've lost faith.

 Honestly, if the whole of canon doesn't convey the idea that
stereotypes  are an obstacle to understanding, I don't know what would.


Potioncat: 
> The House Unity idea came from one of the Sorting Hat's songs and it 
> was dealt with in DH. Lord Voldmort's plan was to unify the houses-- 
> to make everyone Slytherin. So obviously, house unity was a bad idea 
> and must have come from the bits that Salazar put into the Sorting 
> Hat.

Pippin:

 What Hermione said in OOP was  "I think it's a pity we're not trying
for a bit of inter-House unity" and by the epilogue Harry, Ron and
Ginny seem to agree with her.  *Forced* unity, as Voldemort would have
had it, is wrong. Unity that comes from peaceful cooperation by choice
is worth  trying for. 

Our mistake was in assuming that Harry would have to solve all the
problems of the wizarding world to get rid of Voldemort. But he
didn't. He had to work with things as they were, with a House-elf who
wanted to be a slave and with Slytherins who never stopped believing
that pure blood makes you superior.

Potioncat: 
> JKR seems to think that Gryffindors are best and the rest of us 
> better get used to it.

Pippin:
She thinks that the Gryffindor *ideal* is best. But canon shows that
Gryffindors have just as much trouble  living up to their ideals as
other people, and are  just as wrong as Voldemort if they try to
impose their ideals by force.

Pippin