As I sip on my butter beer during the 20-plus hour Harry Potter marathon, I continue to contemplate one of the pivotal HP fan questions – what house do you identify with? I have never been able to come to a definitive conclusion. I would like to believe that I can identify with all four qualities, and choosing a most important seems a bit limiting. Also, when choosing a house (because we’ve all seen how much choice goes into it) you need to accept both the negative and the positive qualities that each of the houses associate with. Not to mention you choose your style of living for the next hypothetical seven years of your life (and even beyond that). So here I have broken down my thoughts for analysis in hopes that I might reach a conclusion:
Gryffindor
Brave but Prideful
We as an audience have a bias perspective, because we see the HP world through the lens of a Gryffindor. While not in first perspective, we follow Harry through the years in a house that is not just proud, but often prideful. Because of this, the house's primary negative quality is so easily masked, and we are rarely made aware of it. Harry and company are always chastising the Slytherins for their tactlessness, but the Gryffindors are just as audacious, and come from a similar place of entitlement. They feel like their bravery will excuse their actions, and warrants a sense of ego.
Slytherin
Cunning but Self-Interested
Slytherins are manipulative because they are so sharp. They are quick thinkers and ambitious. Which can often lead to the idea of privilege to control. They are over-bearing because they think they know what is best. They often make decisions from the POV of their own self-interest, because self-preservation is not only natural, but in their eyes the most beneficial for everyone involved. They have a higher standard of living, and expect more from everything and everyone, including themselves.
Ravenclaw
Intelligent but Judgmental
Ravenclaws are so obviously intelligent in comparison to the other houses as a unit. But, individually, I can only imagine the amount of competition within the house. A house full of kids who pride themselves on their intelligence and creative thinking is going to be prone to judgment and comparison. While brilliant theories and ideas are bound to come out of the long, arguments made of expansive vocabulary, you would never get a break from that kind of pressure.
Hufflepuff
Loyal but Submissive
Hufflepuff's loyalty comes with a sadder counterpart – often being a doormat. Because unconditional loyalty and love warrant a lot of self-sacrifice, and can end in one of two ways: either an ignorant follower mindset, or a mentality of self-deprecation.
This being said, these are all stereotypes and nobody is perfect. While I took this as a theoretical lesser of four evils, in practice (which is still ironically theoretical) there are humble Gryffindors (Lupin) as there are cowardly Gryffindors (Pettigrew), and so on and so forth. For the record, I’m not closer to finding my house, but this article was pretty fun to write. I guess the only true test would be the sorting hat or the queen herself. Huge thanks to this tumblr post for inspiring the gifs.
