A very clever Reddit’er has decided to cast some Lumos on the subject…
If your Harry Potter obsession remains strong – having read the books ten times over and indulged in numerous film marathons – then this latest information might be of interest.
As we know, Hogwarts students were divided into the four houses – Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin, according to their personal traits and characteristics but a Reddit user has gone and questioned the thinking behind this.
The thread entitled “[Harry Potter] The Sorting Hat sorts students based on what traits they value, not possess” is based on this exact theory and goes on to mention various moments from the series.
How Neville isn’t brave, but values this quality and so after a time, he displays courage or how the students put into Slytherin more often than not lack ‘cunning’ with the writer citing Crabbe and Goyle as examples.
Below is an excerpt from the thread and you can read the entire thing in full here:
“The world of Harry Potter holds that the Sorting Hat sorts a child based on what traits they possess. The brave go to Gryffindor, the intellectual to Ravenclaw, the cunning to Slytherin and the hardworking to Hufflepuff (or, if you believe the Sorting Hat in The Prisoner of Azkaban, Hufflepuff just gets the leftovers). However, as I was re-reading the series, I came across a lot of holes in that line of thinking.
“First of all, many of the kids sorted don’t actually have the traits espoused by their heads. 11-year-old Neville isn’t brave at all; he’s even scared of his own shadow. 11-year-old Draco isn’t anywhere near cunning (basically alienating Harry Potter, the wizarding world’s biggest celebrity). And don’t get me started on Crabbe and Goyle”.
What do you think, is there some truth in this? Or does this go against J.K. Rowling’s thinking?
This article first appeared on Her.ie
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