Leslie Fernandez

Olivia Wood

Ethnographic paper

12/1/20

An ethnographic analysis of the Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardy

Field notes: 

For my ethnographic analysis I chose the Hogwarts school of witchcraft and Wizardy to observe how they handle their everyday life. The life of a Hogwarts student I would assume is always chaotic due to the fact that they have to practice magic, defeat evil and constantly do school work all at once. 

 I arrived at Hogwarts school during the time the Americans had their annual Thanksgiving. When I first arrived at the school it was fairly large and so I asked for someone to guide me along the way. The student Hermonie Granger was my guide and my informant for my study. Professors that I passed acknowledged me, were friendly and told me that Hermonie is one of the best students I could have chosen for this study since she is one of the most intelligent pupils in this school. 

     Hermonie led me into several rooms in which I sat independently to write my observations. Many of the rooms I stepped into were warm, filled with twenty five students or less that were dressed in different colored cloaks. An informant in a potions class informed me that these colors were based on the “ house” each student lived in. The houses were RavenClaw, Hufflepuff, Syltherin and griffindor and each house had an animal that represented them. The raven claw house had an eagle, grffindor had a lion, slyhterin had a serpent and Hufflepuff had a badger. When classes were dismissed many students just acted like regular teenagers. Some were making out in the corner of the hall while others were laughing or arguing with their friends. Hermonie introduced me to her friends Harry and Ron and they told me a little about life here at hogwarts. Harry stated that he felt at times overwhelmed since supposedly he was “ the chosen one” in the wizarding world. Being overwhelmed caused Harry to be behind on homework and be less social with all of his other classmates, he said. Harry was known to fight often outside of Hogwarts since he is one of the most wanted students ( not because of misbehavior). Ron stated that he has it easier than Harry as his family eight most of the time helped him with homework and issues he had with his other classmates. It seems that when students have more of an emotional support, they tend to perform better in school. 

As I walked into court yards to observe other students than Harry and Ron, I saw that many students used magic outside of class. The magic they were using were to do simple things such as fetching their backpack or jokingly give their friends a tail. There weren’t many professors around and if they were many told students to head to class or go back to their house. 

The school was decorated a lot by frames of famous wizards or weird frames that talked back to you. Candles were set along the wall to illuminate the halls and dining room and instead of a lift, students used moving staircases to get where they needed to be. When I arrived into the houses ( which were all decorated differently) all students had their own bed and girls and boys were separated. The Hogwarts house rooms smelled like cookies whereas the slytherin smelled like alcohol since students over eighteen can drink. Everything in the Hogwarts school did not seem new but it made sense that the school had to have an old fashioned vibe. 

Introduction: 

The Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and wizardry was built in the tenth century by four powerful great wizards named Gogric Griffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. Without prior knowledge, the arcitehcutre of the castle/building shows how long this building has been around. Ivy covers the exterior of the building where it hugs the stone walls that make up the school. Where there’s a wall that isn’t covered by a moving  painting there are flags with three colors green, blue, red or yellow. Thousands of students from ages 11 to 18 fill the hallways where they rush to go to their next class to learn about magic of course. Learning magic at hogwarts is the main focus and teachers encourage their students to use it to their smartest and best ability. 

I chose to focus my research on the Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry because they exhibit dedicated students who give their time to study magic while living normal teenage lives. Students who I studied were known for being highly intelligent and well rounded. 

Hypothesis: 

I chose to focus on the question of how do these kids live a double life by balancing fighting evil, being social with their friends yet still turn in their english papers. It astonishes me how committed many students are to being top of their class. 

Research: 

The day begins at around seven am yet many students are awake before then pulling all nighters. Fog fills up the outside open hallways and the day will usually stay gloomy due to Scotland weather. My study focused on four main classes such as potions, transfiguration, defense agains the dark arts and muggle studies. Classes are mixed with all houses but some have more students from one house than the other. No class is for just one house; it solely depends on the students interest in the class and if they need that class for their necessary exams. All classes begin at seven after the morning breakfast that begins at 6 am and all classes end at two pm so students have the rest of the day to complete assignments. 

I asked one of my informants, Hedwig if they consider the course load to be too much and she responded that it really depends on how you are as a student. This was expected of her to say since this is the situation for many students. She added on by saying it matters how students manage their time and how much effort they put into the homework. To get more than one opinion I asked another informant, Draco Malfoy if he believed the course load was too much. He said the work is overbearing and he cannot keep up with the work he is doing while “ fighting with who must not be named”. The difference between Hedwig and Draco is that both students have two completely different lives outside of school therefore their views on the work they have to complete is very different. 

Something else I took note of was how many students were involved in activities or sports and surprisingly the majority of students were in fact involved in a sport called “ quidditch” or they were in clubs. Quidditch is a game where two houses like griffindor and slytherin battle against each other and try to score points as they fly on their broomsticks and shoot the ball into the hoops. This was something completely unexpected for me because these students were busy enough with their personal, social and academic life therefore how could they fit anything else into their schedule. Many informants stated that sports and or clubs were a way of de-stressing and for some, live a normal teenage life. Students who were not involved in sports were still number one fans for the quidditch team and went to almost every game that hogwarts held. 

The last thing I took note of is their social life, did the majority of students have a large group of friends or a small group of friends. Students who have a large group of friends are more likely to be more social whereas students with a small group or no group are less social. This was essential for me to research because I wanted to see if even the busiest of students cared about having friends or had the time. I asked one informant named Harry if he is social due to his circumstances. Harry stated that he has about only two friends, yet those have been the most loyal and carrying. He decides to keep his circle small for the sake of his own life but even if he did find more loyal friends than his own he would still keep it down to the two. 

Analysis: 

Being a wizard/witch at the hogwarts school is incredibly challenging, but with the right mindset and friends by your side it may be somewhat easy to get along. The school is made up of very persistent students, all dedicated to their work and making sure there is peace outside of their academic world. Although some may be stressed, the school stresses all kids end with high marks in which majority does. At the end of the day these kids are normal teenagers, with an occasional fight against the dark side.