Chapter Discussion: Goblet of Fire Ch. 4: Back to the Burrow

[sigurd at eclipse.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 191472

Dear Shelley


You say " Not only don't we see a lot of Slytherin in that final battle, but the epilogue shows us pretty much nothing changed when it came to Houses:  Harry's son is having to make a choice between being a Slytherin and a  Gryffindor, between competing loyalities, the same as it was for Harry.  Even if the house competitions were momentarily set aside for one battle  against Voldemort, it's pretty clear that the House system was not  abolished in any way."

Yes you are correct. I had high hopes that at the end of the battle where Rowling paints a vivid picture of the smashed vessels which have spilled the glass (or whatever substance they are made of) beads all over the floor that it was a symbolic "smashing of the House" system and a metaphorical mixing of the blood shed by all the houses in a common battle, but I saw in the final chapter that was not to be. Far more eloquent is the simple nod of recognition that Potter gives to Malfoy down the train platform. I was astounded. That's it!?  One would have thought that for all he had done, Draco and his whole clan would have been sent up for life to Azkaban in maximum security. It goes to prove what I was saying about the British school system- doesn't matter if you're an axe- murderer, so long as you have good manners, wear the right clothes and can tell a Claret from a Riesling you can do what you want and all is OK.

You say "I guess for me the House system is like Alma Matters- I'm currently in Utah, and the local BYU versus UofU is a pretty hot loyalty issue. In > other areas it might be hot between two other colleges. You are supposed to show loyalty to the school you went to. I just laugh; I'm a Utah transplant and came from Penn State, so I think both of them are nuts, but especially during football season every year we get asked to pick a side."

Personally I agree. These "rivalries just to have rivalries" seem illogical and stupid, but they are all over. Colleges are just the tip of the ice-berg. Coke or Pepsi, Ford or Chevy, Mustard or Ketsup on hot dogs people divide themselves over trivialities at the drop of a hat. I admit for me Ketsup on a hot dog seems an abomination but all my life I was a dyed-in-the-wool Ford man and now I have two Chevy's and a Kia in the driveway-- and I don't like either Coke or Pepsi. In sports I suppose it's the imagery and the "I cudda bin a kontendah!" plaint from Rocky. Men like to see themselves as the football hero making the 1000 yard dash or however long it is, and getting to choose one of the cheerleaders, dancing around and flipping up her skirt, but that seems equally ridiculous to me. I must point out at this point that I have not only no interest in sports, I don't even know the game. I don't know anything about football- I don't even know how many baskets make a home run, and as for soccer- what kind of sport is it where you hit the ball with your head!  Try that with bowling!

But to continue- I never understood why, when I went to Upsala College I was immediately supposed to feel a passionate loyalty to the school and a pathological hatred for its enemies. It gets worse with professional sports. The people who play on the teams in the vast majority of cases don't come from your town, you don't know them, and they will likely be bought out by the people you hate next year, or the owner might move them elsewhere. As David Seinfeld said is all you're doing is cheering for the uniform-- you're cheering for laundry.

There's nothing wrong with loyalty. I have intense loyalty to my faith, my country, my way of life, and certain basic assumptions, but they are in the end-- meaningful. That goes to the issue of the four houses- I do not see the rivalry engendered as meaningful. Yet I understand that any school is divided by them and I accept that Rowling's Hogwarts can be no different. But that is my opinion and assumptions and not Rowling, and we can't rewrite her book, though we can perform critical analysis of it.


You say "Only for the kids of Hogwarts, they got asked, almost TOLD by the hat, which side they were on, and they get stuck there for the rest of their lives. No wonder why some kids were fearful of the hat and where it would place them."

Again this is a model of the British Prep School system, AND the very exclusive American Schools. Students are not allowed to determine where they go but are frequently assigned courses and courses of study by the staff or headmaster who himself has been "informed" by the predispositions of the parents, and always, informed or not, tend to direct the student into essentially the same path as their parents-- that is, reinforce the social system they came out of. In these schools children are assigned to the classes they will take, the subjects they will study, the sports they will play, even the extracurricular activities they will engage in, and -- yes-- they will be encouraged to socialize with certain members of the opposite sex with a view to forming attachments.  Notice that in all of the cases we are told the "house" of the parents the "house" chosen for the student is identical, except for the "double Muggle" born, where I suspect they get put simply because of vacancies. In America we know little of this, and people are free to study what they wish (outside of the core requirements).  One is free to fail or be unhappy.  By the way there was an excellent example of all this in the Robin Williams film "Dead Poets Society" where the one student kills himself because his parents and the school will not allow him to pursue a career in drama and acting, which inspired his soul, rather than business or law, which was much more lucrative, which the parents wished.


Otto