Harry Potter and the Four Sons

In the hagada, we read about the four sons: the smart one, the bad one, the simple one, and the one who doesn't know how to ask. For me, these titles are difficult to understand. Why do we call the first son smart, all he does is ask questions? You'd assume someone smart would teaching and not just asking. We call the second son bad, but based on his question he seems as smart as the smart son. The third son we call simple even though he asks the same amount of questions as the bad son. And while we claim the fourth son doesn't know how to ask questions, anyone who has been around Jews who know little to nothing about Judaism know that they're still able to ask questions on what we're doing. Even non-Jews can ask questions on it. How can you have someone who doesn't even know how to ask?

I think it helps to view these four characters like a different four characters we know of: Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar slytherin, Godrick Gryffindor, and Helga Hufflepuff. It's interesting that Ravenclaw is "the smart house" because the smartest characters we know of (Dumbledore, Voldemort, Snape, James, serious, Hermione) are not in Ravenclaw! Rather what is Ravenclaw? It is the house for those who value smarts above all else. Padma Patil was shocked when she noticed how smart Hermione was that she wasn't placed in Ravenclaw. The entire school knew of Hermione's heroic and brave deeds at this point so why was Padma surprised that Hermione was in Gryffindor? It's because to a Ravenclaw who values brains above all else, someone who is that smart belongs in Ravenclaw since brains to them is the most important thing. Padma couldn't understand that Hermione valued her bravery over her brains. Similarly, the smart son is called smart not because he's already smart but because he values smarts and therefore asks numerous questions to increase his knowledge. As stated above, there have been members of Slytherin who were much smarter than Ravenclaws and even members who have been braver than Gryffindors. However, it's normally clear who belongs in Slytherin because they use their smarts, bravery, and all other positive attributes for bad. Similarly, the bad son uses his brain and asks an intelligent question. However, he asks only to mock them as displayed by his exclusion of himself from the question. He uses the word to you as opposed to "to us." And even though the smart son uses the same word, he says our god to include himself, which the bad son never says. Thus, like the Slytherins, he uses his brains for bad reasons.

Gryffindors are very interesting. To a normal group of unqualified, underage wizards, going directly to what very well maybe a trap set by Voldemort with an army if death eaters waiting for them would be a bad idea. However, to Harry and his fellow Gryffindors (and Luna who is a completely different story) they saw that Black was in trouble and they ignored all other details. To them it was "simple," and they did what they had to do. Harry says it him-self in the first book. Ron and Hermione are trying to stop him from going through the trap door because of all the trouble he can get into. Harry tells them that it doesn't matter about the points or about getting expelled. To him it's simple; he needs to save the philosopher's stone. Nothing else matters. A Gryffindor has the ability to completely look past the details and focus on what is simple and what matters most. While the simple son asks the same amount of questions as the bad son, his question is very different in nature from those asked by the smart son and the bad son. The simple son ignores all the details that they mention and inquires about the actions of the seder on the most simple and basic level.

Hufflepuffs have the quality of loyalty. They don't try to glorify themselves as everyone else does. They focus on everyone else before themselves. In the fourth book, Cedric could have easily been mad at Harry who was underage and somehow became the second Hogwarts champion. Harry's own best friend was mad, and we wasn't the one who's attention was being stolen. If he wasn't mad at first, he definitely could have been mad when Rita Skeeter made it seem that Harry was the only Hogwarts champion. None the less, he doesn't sport the anti-Harry badges that everyone else does. He also helps Harry figure out the egg clue. Yes Harry told him about the dragons, but in anger he could have easily justified not paying back the favor (especially given that Harry wasn't supposed to be in that competition in the first place). However, Cedric isn't just looking to glorify himself. Even when Amos Diggory says that Cedric is a better seeker than Harry, Cedric corrects him by saying he won unfairly. We see from the other houses a definite interest in fame and glory. Fred and George attempted to enter into the tournament, Ron sees fame and success in school in the mirror of erised, Phinneas Nigellus proclaims that everyone should remember Slytherin's involvement in Voldemort's defeat, and we don't get to know very many Ravenclaw characters all that well. What we do see is an active avoidance by Hufflepuff of attracting attention to themselves. Similarly, it's not that the fourth son doesn't know how to ask, rather the character described is the type of person, whom we've all had at a Seder, who doesn't speak up or draw attention to themselves. The hagada tells us what to do with them. It says to open their mouths by telling them they have an obligation to tell these things over to their children. If the person actually couldn't talk then telling them about this obligation won't help all that much. If they can talk but have other reasons for keeping quiet then informing them that eventually they'll need to be willing to discuss all these matters would be a good way to get them started in the discussion. Thus we see that the founding fathers of Hogwarts have a lot more depth than we thought, and by examining them we can better understand the four sons in the hagada.