Before the Sorting Hat

Now, growing up I hated reading. It took a lot of effort on my parents side to get me to read anything. My sisters were busy reading all sorts of books from Nancy Drew to Babysitters club. I did not enjoy the same pass time, instead I was busy building houses for my toys and creating stories for myself. It was not long before my sisters had started the Harry Potter phase. I was indifferent to the books. Then, I saw Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone movie and I knew I had to read the books once my oldest sister commented "The book was so much better". I read the Harry Potter book and it changed my life. So, I have decided to write a character analysis on Harry Potter himself.

Harry Potter is an iconic source of pop culture. However, we as reader's need to understand why it became such a big hit for children and adults. I feel that if we understand the complexity of Harry's character we can better understand what J.K. Rowling intention with Harry Potter was. As a child Harry was not loved and not treated the same as Dudley (his cousin). Now, he was not abused in a physical sense, but it still caused emotional trauma for Harry and he had no need to see his family during Christmas as the other wizard children did. As he grows up through the series he becomes more independent and brave. Now, with this analysis I hope to discover why Harry was sorted in Griffindor by the hat and we will see if there are any moments in the first book before the sorting hat that indicates his courage and bravery for the Griffindor house.

"Harry got slowly out of bed and started to look for socks. he found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on" (Rowling, page 20). Now, any child this age would have been terrified on something as simple as a spider, I know for a fact that me and maybe half the population would have crushed the spider out of fear, but for Harry this is a usual occurrence since he sleeps in a cupboard under the stairs. Spiders are a common fear for a lot of people, so can we look at the suggestion that as a boy Harry is not afraid of spiders? Which could have something to do with how he was sorted. Spiders, however are a small indication of how Harry was sorted. The next event in the chapter, is the zoo where the glass vanished.

"Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself - no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than aunt petunia hammering on the door to wake you up - at least he got to visit the rest of the house" (page 25). The way that Harry thinks through out this paragraph gives us a glimpse that Harry is not a malicious person, he feels empathy towards the snake and if he was truly meant to be in Slytherin he would have tried to figure out a way to set the snake towards Dudley or at least had thoughts about that. Instead he was feeling sad for the snake because being in a tank and had no room to roam around. That is another reason why he was not chosen for Slytherin, even though the hat was debating it, in a later book we find out that Harry is what is called a "parseltoungue" which means he can communicate with snakes, and it is often a Slytherin trait. However, since his thoughts were genuine I feel that was a trait of the Griffindor.

In the chapter titled "Letters from No One" Harry has shown his courage on various accounts. The first was when the first letter arrived and he stood up for himself for the first time to Vernon, by shouting that it was his letter. Then, later when Harry decides to time the mail delivery and tries to get it and did not see that his uncle Vernon was sleeping on the floor. Harry has tried to get his letter multiple times and he was very determined to get read it, which again determination is a Griffindor trait. Then, he finally gets his letter and suddenly everything feels different to Harry.

I think the last and final moment of what makes Harry a Griffindor was the first time he met Draco Malfoy. Draco was on the stool and was begging about how awesome he is at every thing that he did and he was full of himself. Especially when it came down to talking about the Hogwarts houses. "I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families" (page 61). Malfoy's snooty attitude makes Harry already dislike someone before he gets to Hogwarts. Even though Harry was not sure about Houses or Quidditch he has made up his mind about what a jerk looks like. This makes Harry in particular a Griffindor because of the opposite mindset of Malfoy and in the movies you have seen that everyone stays friends with everyone in their house unless if they are in Hufflepuff like Luna Lovegood or Cho Chang. So, if Harry was sorted in Slytherin he would have no friends, which would affect the entire plot of Harry Potter.