OVERANALYZING THE TEXT

Hana wrote:

I agree with the fact that Neville doesn't really fit in Hufflepuff, that he doesn't, in fact, seem to fit into ~any~ of the houses.

Yes. As I've argued before, I read the Hat's very long hesitation with Neville as representing a dilemma of "None of the Above." Gryffindor was a best-fit. That doesn't mean that it was necessarily a good fit.

Hana also most kindly provided us with the Gryffindor traits:

The Gryffindor traits from PS/SS and GOF:

brave at heart
daring
nerve
chivalry
bold

(and intelligent since Godric made the Sorting Hat)

He ~has~ shown courage in helping to fight Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle in PS/SS, as well as when he stands up to the Trio so bravery is there, deciding to fight might be considered daring (for him) and show some nerve since he's not really the picture of fighting strength.

I would say that his actions in both of those cases definitely show daring. They certainly show nerve.

They also reveal a great deal of cowardice -- or at the very least, a profound weakness of will.

Really, he's just doing what everybody else keeps telling him to do there, isn't he? The rest of the Gryffindor boys nag and harrass him about how he should "stick up for himself," and Harry tells him that he's worth twelve of Malfoy. So what does he do the very next time a situation like this comes up?

Why, he parrots Harry's words right back to Malfoy, of course. And then he gets into an utterly uncharacteristic fist fight for no good reason at all, other than his desire to satisfy the expectations of his peers.

That's not courage. That's caving to pressure. It's nothing but the social equivalent of succumbing to the Imperius Curse.

Darrin wrote:

The boy took on two boys twice his size.

Yes. It's interesting that, isn't it? Why did he go for Crabbe and Goyle? Why not weedy little Draco Malfoy, against whom he might at least have stood a fighting chance? Why the kids that he knew could land him straight in the hospital -- and not just one of them, but both of them at once?

Could it be that he was trying to make a point?

Darrin also wrote:

The boy risked his friendship with Hermione, Ron and Harry -- and as it turns out, his safety -- because it was best for the house.

And that's an interesting scene too. He doesn't really risk his friendship with them at all. Instead, he comes right out and reminds them that in doing what he is doing, he is specifically obeying their orders. And then he all but dares them to attack him.

I begin to see a pattern emerging here. Do you?

Look, Neville may lack confidence, but he knows the score. He may not be able to hold up against the Social Imperius, but by God he's not going to succumb to it without putting up some form of resistance.

And so he plays to lose.

Neville plays to lose. Playing to lose is the only avenue of resistance he has open to him, because he can't yet muster the confidence or the courage or the sheer strength of will to come right out and say: "No. I WON'T."

I live in hopes that this might change. But Neville's behavior in PS/SS is really pretty godawfully depressing, if you ask me. It's the story of his failure to uphold the virtues of his House. He fails, he fails miserably, and then everyone and his brother comes along and pats him on the back and praises him for his failure.

Just look at how he responds to Dumbledore's point award at the end of the book, will you? He isn't happy. He isn't smiling. He is "white with shock."

Harry thinks it's because he's astonished and pleased.

Then, we know all about Harry's track record when it comes to interpreting other people, right?

Mind you, I do think that Neville is brave. I think he's astonishingly brave. The kid's got plenty of raw courage. Unfortunately, it's just not the sort of courage that his culture values in the least, which means that he has to work at least five times as hard as your typical Joe Warrior Gryffindor type to manifest it.

And Neville still needs a lot of work with that whole "manifesting it" part. He needs a lot of work with that. He proved that in PS/SS.

Where Neville shows that he is capable of manifesting real courage, on the other hand, is when he he asks a girl to the Ball, gets rejected, and then goes right on to ask a different girl. That's courage. Admitting to losing his passwords is courage. And of course, the fact that he has never once tried to use his parents' plight to leverage anyone into showing him the slightest bit of pity or mercy or plain old-fashioned slack is extremely courageous.

Most of all, though, Neville wears fuzzy slippers. At the age of thirteen. He wears them, and as far as we can tell, he wears them without shame. That is the sort of thing that lets me know that he belongs in House Gryffindor.

His behavior in PS/SS, though?

::shakes head sadly::

Oh, no. I don't think so.

Of course, the sad thing about all of this is that JKR seems to have not the slightest idea what she's talking about whenever she writes about Neville. I therefore strongly suspect that she's going to send him off in a direction that will depress me just as profoundly as the end of PS/SS did. (For my rant about where I would like to see Neville go in the canon, see Message #34856).

Darrin:

-- Full disclosure: I came late to the HP books and I was able to read all four for the first time right in a row. The scene where Dumbledore gives Neville the winning 10 points is where I said: "I see now what the hype was about."

Full disclosure myself? The end of PS/SS absolutely turned my stomach, and Neville's plotline was a big reason for that (Marina can guess what the other one was, I'm guessing *g*). I just have so little patience with that particular After School Special interpretation of averse-to-conflict child characters. They really do bug me no end. It was quite some time before I could even steel myself to pick up the second book, and the first volume remains to this day my very least favorite of the four.

—Elkins