A Connection Between Harry Potter Houses and Factions?

Discuss the June 2014 book of the month Divergent by Veronica Roth. While only Divergent--the first book of the series--is the book of the month, feel free to use this subforum to discuss the rest of the series or to talk about the movies, but make sure not to post spoilers unless noted in the topic title.
zoelaurynn
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Re: A Connection Between Harry Potter Houses and Factions?

Post by zoelaurynn »

I never thought about making a connection between the Houses and Factions, but now that you have, I definitely see it. One large difference, though, is that different Houses are allowed to have relations with members of other Houses. In most families, if a child got sorted into a House different than his or her parents, he would still be excepted in the family, come home for the holidays, write letters, etc. It was much more lax. But, as we see in Divergent, once factions are crossed, so is relation.
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Post by Vallary »

I think with factions you are just one thing while the harry potter houses you can be any number of things.
Like for example. If you were Candor you are only honest. While in the harry potter houses like Gryffindor you can be brave or determined or short-tempered etc. For the harry potter houses you are not just one thing. You can be many. While for factions you can only be one thing and you can't change it later on.
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Post by cogarae »

I reAlly don't see the similarity with the factions and houses in Harry potter. To me I see more similarities to the hunger games sectors to the factions.
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Post by Clifora »

I agree that they do seem quite similar. However, they are quite different as well. Harry Potter Houses don't seem so.. 'important' in a sense. The Choosing Ceremony just determines which house suits you and why. For the choosing of factions though, it seems a lot more important and it is a really big decision as it determines what will happen to you for the rest of your life.
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Post by fari30 »

I think Harry Potter houses look at personalities as well as where the students would thrive (the Sorting Hat did want to put Harry in Slytherin because he could be successful there) and the requirements to be in a certain house are a lot more lax. Afterall, Hermione could have easily been sorted into Ravenclaw and Harry into Slytherin and perhaps Luna into Griffyndor. On the other hand, it's quite the opposite for factions, isn't it? One must qualify for only one faction.
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Post by stephlissa »

Haha, I never thought of this!

Although I think Harry Potter & Divergent are very different when it comes to the sorting of factions and houses, and the purpose of that kind of organization, it is kind of funny to me that Divergent is essentially a non-magic future of HP. I mean, the setting of the first two books in the Divergent series was in a secret, closed-place like Hogwarts, which wasn't closed in, but also secret.

Villains in both plots wanted to do away with the protagonist because of their special abilities. People were sorted according to strengths. Main characters were believed to be bad guys at some point.

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Post by MerryLove »

They are definitely similar. I remember reading about the factions and thinking about the different Hogwarts houses. That is about as far as the connection goes though. In Harry Potter, characters don't get a ton of choice which house they are placed in. In Divergent, they get to pick their faction. In Harry Potter, characters aren't limited to their own house's trait. Hermione, for instance, is brave like griffindor and witty like Ravenclaw, and is rewarded and admired for that. In Divergent, characters are made fun of or outright threatened for showing traits of factions not their own.

There are also the factionless. In Divergent, those who fail are kicked out and sent to live on the streets. In Harry Potter, drop outs still have homes and jobs, and muggles are oblivious to what they are missing out on and live their lives normally.

You can definitely see the more dystopian elements present in Divergent's factions that are not there in the land of Hogwarts.
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Post by Taylor Razzani »

Very interesting! I didn't even make the other connections (I thought of Erudite and Ravenclaw but that was about it). It's also interesting because Four said he wanted to borrow something from each faction and the Harry Potter houses seem to be borrowing from more than one, so they have more appeal to most people.
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Post by Sindhu Srinath »

Houses in Harry Potter are sorted out like mind-reading but here, it's portrayed as the wish of the 16 year old. I think Slytherin is nearer to Dauntless, Hufflepuff to Amity, Ravenclaw to Erudite and Gryffindor a mixture of Dauntless and Abnegation or something like that. Gryffindor is hard to compare to the factions.
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Post by Gemma24 »

This is a very interesting point and one that did not cross my mind when I read the Divergent series. I agree they have some similarities but the focus on the houses in Harry Potter is a lot less than in the factions in Divergent. This is just my opinion
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Post by yc123 »

Yes I do agree with this idea. I both cases you are sorted when you are very young into a group that is based off of your personalty and you will spend a good portion of your life there.

However, The Harry Potter houses are a more general overview and they are chosen for you.
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Post by Naval Aulakh »

I can see likenesses since I've perused Harry Potter, however I think they are normal attributes that are generally utilized for stories.
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Post by Yemurai »

I see a connection in the sense that they both group people according to personality. In a way some of the houses on harry potter mimick the factions on divergent. However, the faction system seems a bit narrow minded.
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Post by Helen_Combe »

I think the similarity is coincidental. The Harry Potter groupings are just there to provide the good guys, the bad guys, the victims and the other ones.
The Factions were more about making a stable society.
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Post by jvez »

The idea of separating people into different groups is similar. But there are also other books with that premise. Not just Harry Potter and Divergent.
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