Slytherins: Race and Ambition

[lydamorehouse]

I don't have a lot of time to put my thoughts down in a terribly coherent way, but I'd love to continue the discussion about Slytherins. marlowe1 noted that Slytherins get outed for their racism in the later Harry books, but it is interesting to remember that Voldemort himself is a half-blood, who hated his Muggle father. Snape, the head of Slytherin House, is also a half-blood; he is, in point of fact, the Half-Blood Prince of the title of that book. (Harry, of course, is PURE blood. His mom was Muggle born, but she was a witch.)

While mostly pure bloods get sorted to Slytherin it's NOT a requirement. Harry, as we all remember, was nearly sorted into Slytherin (and speaks parseltongue for crying out loud), and comes around to the idea at the end that it would be okay if his own son were sorted there.

So what about Harry would have made him a good Slytherin, besides the ability to speak to snakes, do you think?

He's not terribly ambitious. I mean, I love Harry, but neither he nor Ron show a lot of apptitude for school work (until, perhaps, inspired by the non-Moody.) Even Neville, by the fourth year, has shown promise in herbology. And, of course, Draco is good at potions. What's Harry got? Quidditch. Dude is a JOCK. I would have hated him in high school.

Is it his tendency toward self-pity? His quickness to anger? His inability to follow even the simplest school rules? (As a Slytherin, frankly, I resent the implication of the first and second, but the third shows some promise. He can be pretty sneaky. Give that boy a Maurader's Map and he's good to go -- although that was an entirely Gryffindor product from the beginning.)

Harry is also a cheater. He cheats in potions class. I mean, straight-up. And he has no qualms whatsoever about using the morally ambiguous curses he finds in Snape's potion book on his enemies. He might favor the "Expelliarmus" spell, but is shown willing to use the Unforgivable Curses against Bellatrix afer she's killed Sirius.

What do y'all think?

(I need to take off. I'm supposed to pick up Shawn for her birthday celebration NOW.)

Comments

[naomikritzer]

Harry's not a pureblood, he's also a halfblood, because his mother was a muggleborn.

JKR has said that Harry almost got sorted into Slytherin because the Hat was seeing the sliver of Voldemort's soul that was lodged in him. As an author myself, however, I feel no particular obligation to EVER be bound by the author's intent. I totally think Harry had it in him to be a Slytherin.

[naomikritzer]

I'm going to natter on for a bit about the Houses and the differences between them.

Ages ago, in some other LJ, I read an analysis of the four houses and who they might actually attract (and why).

Ravenclaw gets the bookworms, of course, and the swots, the people who totally want an A (well, an O) in everything always.

Hufflepuff would be the house where you never had to do anything alone. Whatever it is you wanted to do (try out for the school play? go for a walk? go to the bathroom?) your friends would be there for you. It would be the really social House, like joining a Sorority (or a super social less-inclined-to-torture-initiates sort of frat).

Gryffindor would attract the sporty types. (And it clearly does!) The hale and hearty people who have to be carried to the Hospital Wing while actually unconscious or they'll struggle.

And Slytherin would be the traditionalists. Not just the racists but the people who value things that are old-fashioned, who maintain the traditions of the school, who are classical conservatives.

[notthatedburke.livejournal.com]

Have you just put me in Slytherin?

[naomikritzer]

Aaaand because I want to keep talking about this, I will go ahead and out myself as a fanfic writer.

One of the things I have LOVED about playing in Alternity is the opportunity to explore the intersection of the classic "Slytherin" traits, and heroism. Alternity is an alt-u Hogwarts, in which Voldemort killed James and Lily, then adopted Harry. It's now Year Three; Harry is Harry Marvolo, who was Sorted into Gryffindor but moved to Slytherin on the orders of his father, the Lord Protector. Draco Malfoy is his best friend, although he's maintained some tenuous connections to Ron. Hermione is his personal servant. The Carrows teach at Hogwarts. Barty Crouch is the head of Magical Law Enforcement and Bellatrix Lestrange is an auror (and has a daughter who is a second-year student at Hogwarts).

In a fascist dystopia, if you want to think your own thoughts, you HAVE to be able to lie, shamelessly -- shamelessly is important, because when you feel shame, you start to adjust your own thoughts to match the things you're being forced to say. In a fascist dystopia, only the most crazily ambitious people will look at the situation and think, "I am going to change this."

(Incidentally, even though I know she's a Slytherin, Bellatrix Lestrange could totally have been Sorted into Gryffindor. She is INCREDIBLY brave. Also incredibly EVIL. But really brave. Kind of the flip side of Neville: all is lost, but she still believes. JKR really values bravery and seems to feel on some level that only good people are brave -- Pettigrew was a mis-Sorted Gryffindor, someone who probably should have been in Hufflepuff but was likely Sorted into Gryffindor because he so desperately wanted to be. Pettigrew turned to the dark side because ultimately he was a coward. Bellatrix sought out the dark side and embraced it and didn't even fear Azkaban.)

[(Anonymous)]

Well, the Houses aren't marked by exclusivity in personality traits. By this I mean that G. isn't the house for "brave" people who aren't smart or ambitious or social. Everyone has some of those traits. But which trait is the most marked? A G. can be plenty smart--Hermione is the smartest student in the school, for cryin' out loud. Cedric was plenty brave but was in Hufflepuff. But, Hermione is even braver than she is smart (if that makes sense).

I think many of Slytherins are incredibly brave--think of how brave you must be to hang in Voldemort's inner circle: the guy can kill you any time he wants to and yet you want to be close to him. Why? Because your ambition drives you to obtain the possible power he is offering. So, while it takes a great deal of bravery to be in the presence of Voldemort only those who have overarching ambition do so. Snape is the bravest man in the books after all.

jpj

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

Wait, you're not on my flist for HP fandom...I'm disoriented!

The first thing we learn about Harry in the first book, pretty much, is that he does well in school. He gets pretty good marks at Hogwarts, too. Potions is a great exception--he doesn't do the homework, he doesn't pay good attention in class, and he has a lot of trouble mastering the theory. When he finally cheats at Potions and does well, I understood this to mean that his personality clash with Snape was the big obstacle to learning from him. Because he learns so well from Snape's old book, we realize as readers that he and Snape could have been best pals. There's something exceptional about Potions because there's something exceptional about Snape's relationship with Harry. In Charms and Defense, Harry excels, and he also does OK in Transfiguration.

I think when JKR started the series, she made the house-personality connection a lot looser. You get Neville, who is loyal and likes the Hufflepuff advisor, Hermione, who is a bookworm, and Cho Chang, who is a Ravenclaw who is great at sports. JKR's lazy (IMHO) decision in the last book to have all the Slytherins support Voldemort kind of ruined that. Though Snape and Regulus Black were both in Slytherin, so maybe it's meant to stay a little complicated.