J. K. Rowling's Pottermore Sorting Hat Analysis

Since the introduction of J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore Sorting Hat Quiz, there has been an influx of talk about which house people are sorted into. It isn’t abnormal for people to sneer down their noses at anyone who says they were sorted into the Slytherin House. It’s a common misconception that those who are sorted into Slytherin have an overall dark nature about them. The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from the Harry Potter series has four school “houses” that students are sorted into; each house has its own history and the students in that house usually have very specific personality traits. The Slytherin house is notoriously hated by outsiders for many reasons such as: the house founder, Salazar Slytherin’s, prejudice against …show more content…
Rowling herself “[Salazar Slytherin] believed that the school should only teach pure-blood witches and wizards” (Rowling). His belief went so far that he ended up creating the Chamber of Secrets with a monster that would kill selected muggle-born students in the school. Unfortunately, Salazar passed his biases onto future students, and it is very common for a Slytherin student to be heard calling a muggle-born student “mudblood”, a derogatory term for someone born from muggle parents. Thus, people outside of the Slytherin community view those students in it as being like-minded with their house founder and believe that all Slytherin students have a hatred for anyone who isn’t a pure-blood wizard.Those outside of the Slytherin house hate Slytherin students because Salazar Slytherin himself had a hatred for muggle-born witches and wizards.Salazar’s prejudice is a main reason for people’s bias against them, but it isn’t the only cause for such a deep hatred for this Hogwart’s …show more content…
This selectiveness of certain personalities was upheld throughout the years thanks to the Hogwart’s sorting hat, who was able to look deep into new students’ minds and see what their personality traits were. Slytherin students often share the traits of being ambitious, shrewd, cunning, and achievement-oriented, meaning that Slytherins are real thinkers who are interested in getting ahead. It seems that the one trait that Slytherin’s are missing, that would help others despise them less, is that they are not too concerned with being chivalrous. In a Pottermore Article titled Why Hogwarts Needs a Slytherin Rowling describes how being cunning and achievement-oriented really helps many Slytherin students get ahead in life and how it’s normal that people who want to get ahead are going to succeed (6). The lack of chivalry in Slytherin students, and their willingness to do the work to get ahead in life makes it certainly seem like Slytherin students are too ambitious for