Potterhead July Blog Festival
What: A month long series of posts dedicated to celebrating the magical world of Harry Potter!
Who: Bloggers across the world
When: July 1st-31st
Why: Because we all need more Harry Potter in our lives
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Hogwarts Houses: Do They Create Division or Unity?
Division
Houses, and the Sorting Hat, by their very nature, create division. The Sorting Hat separates students into different houses based upon the characteristics students have that best suit each house. In the very first book, the Sorting Hat sings a song describing each house.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalrySet Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you've a ready mind,Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folks use any means
To achieve their ends.
By separating students into different houses, the Sorting Hat is including some students into a group and excluding others from the group.
As seen throughout the books, this separation of students can lead to stereotypes, especially if students within individual houses don't commingle with students from different houses.
House Stereotypes:
Gryffindor=Brave (the heroes, the "good guys", the jocks)
Hufflepuff=Loyal (take in students who don't fit into the other houses, in the words of Draco Malfoy "Imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?")
Ravenclaw=Smart (brainy, eccentric, absentminded, the geeks)
Slytherin=Ambitious (ruthless, the "bad guys", the bullies)
As you can see, Slytherin gets a bad rap, and people usually underestimate or forget about Hufflepuff.
These House stereotypes affect the relationships between students from different houses and can cause rivalries. The intense rivalry between Gryffindor House and Slytherin House, both on and off the Quidditch pitch, is the perfect example. Members of both houses feel such a strong loyalty to their respective houses that Gryffindor-Slytherin friendships are almost non-existent in the books, and students from each house are openly hostile towards each other.
Unity
While the Hogwarts Houses do divide students into different groups, they also can unify students. In general, people like the feeling of belonging to something. As Professor McGonagall says in the very first book, "your houses will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room." Many first years, especially muggleborn first years, are nervous to attend Hogwarts, and belonging to a House full of like minded people can help students settle in and become more comfortable. The House Cup, a yearly competition between houses in which houses gain or lose points based upon their success and failures in school, further unites students in each respective house as they work toward a common goal.
In the later Harry Potter books, the theme of unity is strengthened by inter-house friendships and alliances. After the Triwizard Tournament ends in the fourth book, Dumbledore preaches about the necessity of standing together whether it be with different houses or different countries when he says, "We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided." At the end of the day, no matter what house they belong to, they are all Hogwarts students. There are many characters throughout the series who ignore house boundaries and become friends with other students regardless of which house to which they belong. In the fourth book, Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter help each other out during the Triwizard Tournament even though they are from different houses and are competing against each other. In Order of the Phoenix, Harry forms Dumbledore's Army with students across different houses to study Defense Against the Dark Arts in secret to prepare for the coming war against Voldemort.
Members of Dumbledore's Army (listed alphabetically by last name)
Gryffindor:
-Katie Bell
-Lavender Brown
-Colin Creevey
-Seamus Finnigan
-Hermione Granger
-Angelina Johnson
-Lee Jordan
-Neville Longbottom
-Parvati Patil
-Harry Potter
-Alicia Spinnet
-Dean Thomas
-Fred Weasley
-George Weasley
-Ginny Weasley
-Ron Weasley
Hufflepuff:
-Hannah Abbott
-Susan Bones
-Justin Finch-Fletchly
-Ernie Macmillan
-Zacharias Smith
Ravenclaw:
-Terry Boot
-Cho Chang
-Michael Corner
-Marietta Edgecombe
-Anthony Goldstein
-Luna Lovegood
-Padma Patil
As you can see, three of the four different Hogwarts Houses united together to form Dumbledore's Army. Looking back at it now, I would've liked to see at least one rogue Slytherin join Dumbledore's Army. I find it hard to believe there wasn't at least one Slytherin student who felt like he or she didn't get along with the rest of the Slytherins or wanted to actually learn Defense Against the Dark Arts because Professor Umbridge wasn't teaching anything useful in the actual class. Slytherins are an ambitious lot, so I'd imagine they'd want to learn and become the best witch or wizard they could be. There's even a fan theory for Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire which suggests that if a Slytherin had replaced Cedric Digorry in the Triwizard Tournament, it would've brought the houses closer together. You can read about it here: What if Cassius Warrington (a Slytherin) had been killed instead of Cedric Diggory?
The Unifying Power of Hogwarts Houses in the Real World
Hogwarts Houses even unify people outside of the Harry Potter books too. If you've ever talked with Harry Potter fans, they've no doubt at one point proudly declared which house they were sorted into on Pottermore and eagerly asked to which house you belong. As a Ravenclaw myself, I know I feel an instant kinship with people when I hear they're also a Ravenclaw. Ravenclaws Represent!
Take a look at a lot of the popular YA book series, and you'll see the idea of sorting people into different groups is extremely popular. There are the different houses in Harry Potter, the different factions in Divergent, the different demigod houses in Percy Jackson, the different districts in The Hunger Games, etc. Countless personality quizzes online will sort you into each. I believe that people like being sorted into groups because people want to know what makes them unique but also know that they are not alone at the same time. In the words of the great Dr. Seuss, "we're all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness."
In the end, I think we all have a little bit of each house within us.
Let's Chat! (because I could seriously talk about all things Harry Potter all day)
Which Hogwarts House are you? What do you love most about your house? Do you think Hogwarts Houses create division, unity, or a little bit of both? Comment below!
