Once A Slytherin, Always A Slytherin?

One thing I have to say from the start: I love the Harry Potter series. I bought the first three book, and after that bought the next ones the days they were released. I went to the midnight premieres of the movies – all like a proper fan.

The universe J.K. Rowling builds is wonderful. The small things like the sweets, spellotape, Arthur Weasley being adorably excited about plugs and cars; and the idea of magic itself, the new concepts of it being a genetic trait and used in everyday living, the way Molly gets her housework done with spells.

The writing might not be on par with the best writers of our time, but it does tell the story, and tells it well. I always found the hype around the Harry Potter releases justified, and it made me a little warm and fuzzy inside that all this was happening because of a book, at a time when books don’t seem to be important to children anymore.

There has been quite a lot of criticism around the Harry Potter series. The first books were lauded by the critics – but when the series became more and more successful, critics started to complain about the writing or plot concepts. It always seemed to me they were influenced by the fame Harry Potter was accumulating in a negative way; it reminds me of my father telling me that he wouldn’t read books on the bestseller lists because if so many people liked a book, it couldn’t possibly be good.

The criticisms I have about Harry Potter are few. I’m never too fond of the need to pair everyone off and have them married with children. It’s not the only way to lead a happy life. J.K. Rowling has a rather black and white view of many things. That’s not a bad thing necessarily: seeing the Good win at the end was such a beautiful thing, who doesn’t want the Bad to lose in real life, and somehow it never works out that way?

At times though, this hinders the story. With some characters, Rowling seems to have the standpoint that you they can’t change. This is most notable in the Houses of Hogwarts, into which the students are sorted according to their personality. That’s the first slightly weird thing, how do you sort a random crowd of children into four groups with matching personalities?

What’s worse though is that it seems it’s almost impossible to stray from that fate. That’s especially true for Slytherin House, which is known for its ambitious students. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Rowling finally had the chance to have the Slytherins redeem themselves, but no – they are the only ones who don’t fight in the Battle of Hogwarts, and even afterwards, the Malfoys sit alone, apart from everyone else.

This is, in my eyes, a huge missed opportunity, and one that had it been taken, would have made the series even more wonderful.

By: Caz

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