Hogwarts House Diversity and Unity

It's Em here writing for The Weekly

Hutter, bringing you a blog about

house unity and house diversity.

This is a bit of a broad and large

topic, but I've decided to look at

what we see of house diversity

and house unity throughout the

story.

I hope you find it interesting, and

do feel free to share your thoughts :blush:

Let's start with the diversity between the

houses.

As we all know, students are sorted into

houses. We may not be sure whether the

hat sorts students based on traits they

already have, on traits the hat sees they

have a predisposition of and expects

them to develop further, on the traits the

students themselves value most or on

some other criteria (I've seen this debate

before and I know it's something people

still disagree on), but regardless a student

is placed into a house in which a specific

set of traits are especially prominent.

The houses are all quite different from

each other, of course, as they cover a

wide range of characteristics. The houses

truly emphasise the traits each one

'values most', as we can see through

actions of the people in the story. We

all have inherent features to our

personalities, but with the four houses

we truly get to know them. Bravery,

cunning, wit, fairness, and more are all

displayed in one way or another. And I

think it's great that we got to explore

them through the characters in the story.

The range of traits across the Hogwarts

houses is impressive, and they're grouped

quite well, but while I think that the house

system encourages students to take note

of important characteristics that they may

otherwise have dismissed or not reflected

much over, I also think they might be

slightly more problematic than helpful.

The differences between the houses are

a kind of basis for several things that go

on in the storyline. Prejudice is a major

topic, for example, and there are many

cases where people made assumptions

of someone based on the house they

belong to. "All Slytherins are evil";

"Hufflepuffs are the leftovers"; "Ravenclaws

only care about grades"; "Gryffindors are

all pompous". It seemed like many weren't

that interested in mingling with or getting

to know fellow students from other houses;

Gryffindors stuck with other Gryffindors,

Ravenclaws with Ravenclaws, and so on.

But I've found, especially after ing this

amino and getting to know so many

Potterheads, that a lot of people find

themselves torn between two, sometimes

even three houses, because they relate

to them all so much.

It reminds me that this division made

between the students is something the

witches and wizards have established

themselves. I doubt any student has

only traits from one house alone; this

housing method must mostly be a

convenient way to provide housing for

all the boarding children and encourage

friendships from the very first day at a

new school far from home.

So despite JK Rowling having been the

one to create the story, the houses and

the people, I kind of agree with those

that say the houses and their relationships

with each other weren't portrayed so

fairly through the HP books/movies.

If this had been reality I feel like there'd

be more encouragement from staff and

other adults to get students from other

houses to know each other. Or, as someone

suggested on the internet, if the dorms

were instead made up of one or two

students from each house, so as to

balance each other's personalities out,

the kind of division that we see in Harry

Potter might be avoidable altogether, and

the diversity the school hosts might be

more appreciated and maybe set in a

better light.

And with that I want to move on to the

house unity aspect of this blog.

It's not news that the houses are all rather

proud of their own history and their own

. After all, it's the people of your

own house that you get to know the best,

and it's the people in your house that you

compete alongside against others. I think

you can say the same thing for all them,

namely that unity within the house is

strong. As I mentioned, they all tend to

stick together and have each other's backs.

But what about unity between the houses?

We may have a majority of students who

generally dislike or distrust their classmates

due to the house they belong to, but there

are also friendships between students of

different houses that show how the houses

really aren't anything but a convenience.

The first friendship that might come to

mind is that between the Golden Trio

and Luna Lovegood.

Another that I immediately think of is the

marriage between Tonks' parents, and the

friendship between Newt and Leta (both

being cases of a Hufflepuff and a Slytherin).

Dumbledore's Army collected students

from most houses (I thought I read

somewhere that there were Slytherin

students also involved, but I don't know

if it was ever specified).

And of course, I think one of the greatest

moments that displays house unity was

shown through the Battle of Hogwarts.

Here, students put aside their differences

and fought side by side, working together

and protecting each other and their school.

Finally, let's not forget that Harry's very

own son was sorted into Slytherin, but this

wasn't made into a big deal by his Gryffindor

family.

It's my opinion that at the end of the

day, the houses are just dorm rooms,

necessary to ensure everyone has

somewhere to sleep and a good start

at making friends. It isn't surprising that

there is division between students from

different houses, because you get to

know the people you're surrounded by

best, and the history each house has -

as well as the competition between

them - doesn't help, and leads students

to become quite blind to the possibility

of inter-house friendships. I have to it

that I find it slightly silly that people let

the dorms they are assigned decide so

much of their life, but alas that is the way

the houses are set up according to the

storyline we know.

In my opinion, the houses encourage

division more than unity, which I think is

a shame. We have seen that there have

been friendships between different

houses, but they seem to be frowned

upon (at least where Slytherin is

concerned), and as a result I'm not

surprised that we see so few. It's a

shame that the diversity the houses

offer became a way to judge others,

but I'm happy that the friendships we

do see seem quite strong.

But I like to think that these days,

Hogwarts students are a bit more

open-minded and willing to give the

other houses a chance.

~ Coming soon ~

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Sources:

Cover photo from PenguinTeen

Gifs from amino gif searches

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