Author Archives: Sarah

The House System: Bringing People Together and Tearing Them Apart

Posted by Sarah in Journal 12

In her article “Safe as Houses: Sorting and School Houses at Hogwarts,” Lavoie talks mostly about the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin. She discusses why Slytherin is allowed to continue even though they are known to product dark wizards and why they are described the way they are in the books. Though just like in the novels the other two houses, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff go mostly unnoticed. Though it is widely known that the Houses provide a family for those within it they don’t foster much of a community atmosphere outside of the houses. Lavoie furthers this argument by stating that the welcome back feast “reinforces two types of loyalties – that which each individual owes to the school, and that which is owing to one’s house. The Sorting Hat thus brings the students together and simultaneously sets them apart” (35). At an extremely young age the children who go to Hogwarts are sorting into their houses. The sorting process is problematic on a couple of levels.

For starters, each house represents certain values that can also be seen as stereotypes. The Gryffindors are brave and daring, Hufflepuffs are loyal and hard-working, Slytherin are clever and ambitious, and Ravenclaws are smart and value learning. These are somewhat constricting parameters for a person to meet and it over simplifies the complexities of human personalities. Lavoie exemplifies this idea when she is talking about the simplified online sorting quizzes, “Rowling’s character’s, and the houses in which the hat places them, are more complicated than the websites allow” (40). Some people would suggest that Hermione should be in Ravenclaw because she is extremely smart and is at the top of her class. Even though she possesses those values that are important to Ravenclaw she is put in Gryffindor. Given the fact that Hermione is so smart she would fit the bill for Ravenclaw and should be put there but she isn’t is put into Gryffindor. She defies the stereotypes that seem to constrict those in the houses they are sorted in. However, most people do not seem to defy the stereotypes of their house. Draco Malfoy is one such example. He is cunning in that he is always trying to trick the system to get what he wants; an example of this would be when he got on the Quidditch team not by talent but by buying his way on the team with new brooms for everyone on the team. He also confirms the stereotype around Slytherins going bad when he becomes a Death Eater.

The other issue with sorting the students right when they get to school is that the house you are sorted into determines the friends you are going to have for the next seven years. Though Gryffindor has classes with other houses, they mostly have class with Slytherin. Given the hatred those two houses have for each other that doesn’t really give them the opportunity to interact and become friends with people from that house. Though they do occasionally have classes with other houses no friendships seem to come from it. The houses divide them. The only time some of the houses seem to come together is against Slytherin, “more often than not Gryffindors are united with Hufflepuffs and Ravenclws in their abhorrence of Slytherin” (Lavoie 38). But this only seems to bring the houses as a whole together and friendships on a more personal level don’t seem to form. Harry doesn’t make a friend from another house until he meets Luna in his fifth year at Hogwarts. Even then it is kind of hard to call them friends as they don’t really spend any time together except for when they are in the DA or Luna is helping Harry, Ron, and Hermione out in some form or another. She mostly exists on the periphery of the story and of our trio’s lives.

So, the houses bring people together and tear them apart all at the same time. The houses create some pretty strict stereotypes that most people seem to adhere to with a few exceptions. It divides people symbolically and physically from each other. The houses determine who your friends are going to be before you even get a chance to meet any other people since the sorting happens right after the first years get to Hogwarts. The houses make it a lot harder to make friends outside of your house though it does happen sometimes in the case of Luna and the trio. Perhaps there is a better way to sort the houses or maybe even create some programs where members of different houses can freely communicate with those in other houses for we will always be stronger together than apart.

Journal 6

Posted by Sarah in Reading Journal 6

In Janice Liedl’s article “Witches vs. Women: What Muggles Could Learn from Wizarding History,” she talks about the differences between how women’s roles have changed throughout history in both the Muggle and wizarding worlds. She talks about how the wizarding world was far ahead of the Muggle world in terms of gender equality since “from the earliest histories of the wizarding world, we learn of powerful witches who played an important role in their society, schools, and government” (Liedl, 246).

I thought it was interesting how J. K. Rowling decided to make sexism a nonissue in the wizarding world. Instead of outright saying that they didn’t have sexism as a problem like in the Muggle world she shows us by having strong and powerful women not just in the Harry Potter books but all throughout magical history. Long before Muggle women were even allowed to vote or own their own property “Artemisia Lufkin took the highest office in the wizarding world as Minister for Magic” (Liedl, 249). In not having strong women being an issue in the wizarding world, J. K. Rowling helps normalize strong women. Normalizing the idea of having strong women is a good step toward having more gender equality in our society

One of the strongest female characters we meet in the Harry Potter universe is Molly Weasley. Even though she meets the stereotypes of a woman by being a full-time mother with a lot of kids there is so much more to her than that. All at the same time she is a full-time mother she was also an active member of the Order of the Phoenix both times Voldemort was in power. She also showed her true power when she killed Bellatrix defending her children “’you – will – never – touch – our – children – again!’ screamed Mrs. Weasley…. Molly’s curse soared beneath Bellatrix’s outstretched arm and hit her squarely in the chest, directly over her heart… and then she toppled….” (OOTH, 736, 737). Molly had the power and skill not only to fight Bellatrix, another powerful witch, but also to kill her.

No world is perfect, however. Despite the fact that the wizarding world seems to be free of sexism it “was an environment where magical ability, not gender, determined members’ choices and status” (Liedl, 246).  Since the wizarding world is this magical place that one would think it would be perfect and free of all inequality it is not without issue. One could argue that since the wizarding world has people in it is bound to be flawed since people are flawed. There will always be those people who want more, don’t agree with the way things are and want to change it, for better or worse.

So instead of having sexism be the central issue in the wizarding world we get blood purity as the main societal issue. This is an idea we are introduced to very early in the books before we even get to Hogwarts when Draco Malfoy is talking about Muggle-borns in Madam Malkin’s “’I really don’t think they should let the other sort in, do you? They’re just no the same, they’ve never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families.’” (SS, 78). Before Harry is introduced to the idea of someone who is Muggle-born he encounters someone is bashing on them. Luckily, Harry knows that he doesn’t like Malfoy right away and doesn’t become friends with him.

The wizarding world seems to be filled with women in power so sexism pretty clearly isn’t an issue. Despite that fact, it isn’t without issue. No society is perfect and Harry Potter’s wizarding world is no different. The wizarding world is plagued with the issue on blood purity that is something we are introduced to almost immediately as we enter into the wizarding world with Harry for the first time.

Re-Mix Idea

Posted by Sarah in Remix Ideas, Uncategorized

Since Neville could have been the Chosen One instead of Harry but Voldemort picked Harry I want to make a fanfiction in which Voldemort chose Neville instead of Harry and explore how the series could have been different if Neville was the Chosen One. For this project, I will write a bit of how something that happened in one of the books would be different if Neville had been in the place of Harry.

Reading Journal 3 – Sarah

Posted by Sarah in Reading Journal Three

In her article, “Hairy Snout, Human Heart? Werewolves in Harry Potter’s World and in European History,” Eveline Brugger talks about how the idea of werewolves changed throughout history and compares that to the how werewolves are seen in the Harry Potter novels. She then compares and analyzes to experiences of the two prominent werewolves in the series, Remus Lupin and Fenrir Greyback. At one point Brugger compares being a werewolf to having AIDS as they are both dangerous, contagious illnesses that often result in a social shunning by society (303).

This comparison is a fair one to make as there are many similarities to how people who are werewolves are treated in the Harry Potter novels and how people with AIDS were treated, especially during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. When the AIDS epidemic started in the 1980s no one really knew what caused AIDS but it was noticed that people who were homosexual or did drugs seemed to be the only people to be getting AIDS.

It was commonly thought that AIDS could be passes from person to person by touch, even though that was untrue, and therefore people who were known to have AIDS were highly discriminated against just as people who are werewolves are in the wizarding world. In the beginning of the epidemic no one knew where it was coming from; they just knew people were getting sick and mostly in the homosexual community. And just as people who contracted AIDS didn’t ask for it people who were werewolves didn’t ask for it either, “humans turn into werewolves only when bitten” (Brugger 294) and “men who turn into wolves don’t do it of their own accord” (Brugger 295). People with AIDS and those who were werewolves didn’t ask for what happened to them but just became victims of circumstances they couldn’t control and for which they were, and are sometimes still are, viciously discriminated against.

In the 1980s people who died of AIDS were often denied a proper burial and were cremated in the hospitals often without the consent of the family members. People who were in homosexual relationships often weren’t allowed to see their partners due to the intense negative stereotyping around homosexuality at the time, partners of people with AIDS were often not allowed to see their partners in the hospital or go to their funerals because families wouldn’t allow them to see their partners. People with AIDS lost their job or couldn’t find housing because no one wanted to work with or live around someone with AIDS. People who were werewolves in the wizarding world came across similar treatment in that they weren’t really accepted in the general population so often created their own communities outside of the general population as Lupin tells Harry, “’they have shunned normal society and live on the margins, stealing – and sometimes killing – to eat’” (HBP 334). Finding and keeping a job once people knew you were a werewolf was also problematic as we see when Professor Lupin as to leave Hogwarts at the end of Harry’s third year, despite the fact that he was their best Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, “’this time tomorrow, the owls will start arriving from parents…. They will not want a werewolf teaching their children, Harry’” (POA 423).

But all hope is not lost. Similar to AIDS there is no cure for being a werewolf but in both cases, there are medicines that can help alleviate pain and extend a person’s life who has either condition. As Brugger quotes from Fantastic Beasts, “there is no known cure, although recent developments in potion making have, to a great deal, alleviated the worst symptoms” (294), even though one cannot reverse the process that made them a werewolf there is a way to make the transformation more manageable. Professor Lupin talks about this potion, Wolfsbane Potion, when he is explaining how he keeps himself safe in the school during the full moon, “’it makes me safe, you see…. I keep my mind when I transform…. I am able to curl up in my office, a harmless wolf, and wait for the moon to wane again.’” (POA 353). The same is true for people with AIDS, there is no way to cure a person of AIDS over the years there have been a lot of developments in treatments for AIDS that have helped prolong the lives of people who have AIDS.

So, despite the fact that Brugger’s article only makes the comment that being a werewolf is like having AIDS there are a lot of commonalities between but just how people with either condition is treated but also to what extent the malady can be managed. Werewolves and people with AIDS have been shunned by society and there is little that can be done about their conditions when it comes to curing them but that doesn’t mean that those people can or should be treated as subhuman.

Journal One – Sarah Schlight

Posted by Sarah in Reading Journal One

While I was reading the chapter “Marx, Magic, and Muggles: Class Conflict in Harry Potter’s World,” I found it interesting that while the amount of money and property a person has was important it seemed much less important than having the desired blood-status. Those who were pure-bloods had the most prestige, then those who were half-bloods with only one magical parent and lastly Muggle-borns who had little to no prestige and were often ridiculed and looked down upon despite their own personal achievements. Though it is true that society as a whole seems to look down on those people it can still be up to individuals to make their own opinions about the people they encounter.

The way I see it someone who is pure-blood but has next to no money, like the Weasleys, can have more prestige than someone who is a half-blood who has a lot of money. “The Weasleys are poor (in comparative terms), but their class status within the magical world is second to none” (Hall 287). The same would follow for half-bloods having more prestige than Muggle-borns. Under that logic, it would be next to impossible for anyone to rise out of the class that they were born into. As Susan Hall states “any outsider to the magical world, such a Tom Riddle, is immediately placed at a profound disadvantage” (274). Without the advantage of having the right class within the Wizarding world or at the very least knowing the right people, as Harry did to get out of trouble in the Order of the Phoenix, “[he] is saved only by his personal reputation and but the intervention of Dumbledore” (Hall 274), one has little hope of gaining any really stature in the Wizarding world.

But for some people money and prestige isn’t everything. The most obvious example being Harry. Since he grew up in a household with no love and seemingly no money problems, despite the fact that he didn’t reap the benefits of the Dursley’s apparent wealth, Harry valued the good company and the love he received from the Wesley family over wealth. It is true that Harry didn’t have to worry about money in the Wizarding world as his parents had left him a great deal of money; he still sometimes felt guilty about his abundance of galleons when the Weasleys mentioned their money problems, “Harry felt even worse when they reached his vault. He tried to block the contents from view as he hastily shoved handfuls of coins into a leather bag” (COS 57). Harry also didn’t care about the blood-status of the people he hung out with as it became apparent when he snubbed Malfoy for Ron. “Harry rejects Draco’s overture of friendship with outright scorn and sides with Ron Weasley, whose large, loving family he envies and whose money troubles he has nothing but sympathy for” (Hall 273).  The Malfoys have a lot of power and prestige in the Wizarding world but Harry doesn’t really care for Draco and how he treated other and so sided with Ron. Likewise, whenever anyone even seems to insult Muggle-borns Harry is fast to rely that “’one of my best friends is Muggle-born,’ said Harry, ‘and she’s the best in our year’” (HBP 70). Harry only seeks to fill his life with good natured people and seems to be a good judge of character in that respect.

So it would seem that in order to get ahead in the Wizarding world one has to be from a good family with a good blood-status. Money doesn’t really factor into a person’s class as it does in American society where money seems to be the root of a person’s class. So, in the Wizarding world it’s more about where you come from than what you make that gets you ahead in society. Though, money and power don’t matter to everyone and those people have got it right.