Harry Potter And its Themes

Transcription

1 Harry Potter And its Themes Harry Potter is now a household name; all over the world, millions of people know the story of the boy-with-the-lightning-bolt-scar and have become familiar with his face, or rather, Daniel Radcliffe s face. Despite its multitudes of fans, however, not everybody loves or even enjoys the Harry Potter series. Some condemn J.K. Rowling and her work, others simply do not consider her famous series to be of much worth, and of course, there is also a group which simply does not consider the series to be very entertaining, or at least not entertaining enough to read hundreds and hundreds of pages for. Harry Potter does, indeed consist of hundreds and hundreds of pages: the fifth book in the seven-book series, Order of the Phoenix was over 800 pages, the last book, Deathly Hallows seven-hundred-and-something. What is amazing about Harry Potter, then, possibly even more so than the number of people who have purchased copies of the books, is the fact that millions of people, particularly young people, have read these enormous books, and read them in an age in which children and adolescents are no longer so interested in books and literature. In any case, J.K. Rowling s Harry Potter series has undoubtedly wrought a substantial impact on the international community, to the extent that we can examine the degree to which, and the ways in which, the books have influenced modern culture around the world (Grossman and Sachs). Though the word popular can be defined in several different ways, we can hardly dispute that Harry Potter is, in fact, popular. Up until April 2007, the first six books had sold more than 325 million copies collectively, and Deathly Hallows broke records with its first print run of 12 million copies for the United States alone. Additionally, the series has thus far been translated into sixty-four different languages ( Harry Potter ). These statistics inarguably establish the Harry Potter books as the most widely sold and read novels of their generation. The numbers are indeed staggering: millions of people around the world have read Harry Potter, millions of copies have been sold, and J.K. Rowling is now richer than the queen of England. She is officially the highest-earning novelist in history ( Harry Potter ). Additionally, the books are currently being made into movies, which can also be described solidly enough as popular. Fans of the books, apparently, have been

2 attracted to the movies, which are essentially the visual portrayals of the words they read and enjoy. Goblet of Fire made $896,016,159 in the total worldwide box office, while Order of the Phoenix, which came out in theatres in July, made $937,685,187 ( Harry Potter film series ). Several different people, including Rowling herself, obviously, are making a lot of money from the story of the Boy Who Lived. Harry s story can probably at least be summarized briefly by the average American citizen; those who have not had the time or the interest to read thousands of pages of children s fiction quite likely would have watched the widely viewed two-anda-half hour cinematic renditions of the novels. In summary, Harry Potter is a dark-haired boy with a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead, and who may or may not look like a British actor named Daniel Radcliffe. He and his friends: Ron Weasley, a source of comic relief in both the books and the movies, and Hermione Granger, who is very intelligent and possibly very pretty, must defeat Lord Voldemort, the archetype of the villain who Wants to Take Over the World (Rowling). To critically inquire into why these books have been, and still are, so widely bought and read is not completely unreasonable. Rowling s plots are creative and entertaining, but hardly ingenious or meaningful, and the quality of her writing is often only surprisingly publishable. Yet something about Harry Potter and the Sorcerer s Stone caught the eye of the public; ever since then, the public s ravenous demand for the series has hardly been appeasable. We should consider that the series is, after all, fantasy fiction, which is appealing to today s young people, as well as to older generations. Stories about magic, wizards, and witches have always appealed to people s imaginations and to their attraction towards fairy tales and the fantastically unreal. The Harry Potter books are undeniably creative and entertaining, and we may definitely attribute the series popularity to these characteristics; the charisma and at times the almost painful realism of Rowling s now much-beloved characters have contributed to sky-high sales levels as well. We must also consider Rowling s thrilling plot twists; her books often read as mystery fiction. Each of the books, in fact, are structured as mystery adventures; the books leave a number of clues hidden in the narrative, while the characters pursue a number of suspects through various exotic locations, leading to a twist ending that often reverses what the characters had been led to believe ( Harry Potter ). In the first book of the series, for example, readers are led to believe that Severus Snape is after the Sorcerer s Stone, when actually, Professor Quirell, whom nobody would suspect, is revealed to be the true villain Harry must defeat (Rowling). With the exception of the seventh and probably the sixth book, each novel has Harry, Ron, and Hermione trailing

3 a villain who in the end turns out to not be a villain, and instead be faced with the shocking and totally unforeseen truth when the complicated secrets of the plot finally unravel themselves near the very end (Rowling). Another major plus of the series is also a literary one: the point of view in which Harry Potter is written. With the exception of a very few introductory chapters, the entire series is written from a third person limited point of view, or in other words, solely through Harry s eyes. Thus, readers learn the secrets of the story when Harry does ( Harry Potter ). Additionally, there is no way for the readers to ever know for certain what the other characters are thinking and feeling. Readers can only derive from Harry s observations in order to make judgments on the people surrounding him. The progress of Ron and Hermione s romantic relationship, for example, seems to be charted accurately enough through what Harry notices between the two of them. To his credit, Harry seems to be aware of the romantic connection between his two best friends long before either of them is willing to admit it aloud (Rowling). In any case, it can probably be said with justification that a significant part of the appeal of the series comes from the appeal of Harry. Because the entire story is through his eyes, Harry s personality permeates through the pages; readers are enveloped in the strange familiarity of this character that is so familiar because he is so human. Harry has annoyances, complaints, grudges, crushes, and rivalries, just like a normal human being, and we are amused and somehow gratified to read about his trials and triumphs. But at the same time, Harry is greater than the average human being. Though on many different levels, Rowling depicts her central hero as a relatively normal person, she also clearly, explicitly shows her readers that he possesses a singular courage and selflessness. Harry s nobility is probably also one of the factors of this series incredible success. Massive series like Harry Potter are often founded to a significant extent on good, noble characters, on which sweeping, epic tales can be built. By Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter is indeed an epic (Rowling). On the more technical structure of the novels, each book in the series, excluding the seventh, follows a pattern that the readers come to be very familiar with, and often fond of. At the beginning of each book, Harry is with the Dursleys, his hateful blood relatives, in the Muggle, or non-magic, world, where he suffers from abuse and illtreatment, as well as boredom and frustration. A few chapters later, Harry winds up somehow or other at a magical location in the Wizarding, or magic, World for the rest of his summer vacation before going back to Hogwarts, which he returns to by taking the school train at Platform 9-and-three-quarters. At school, we meet new characters and find out more about old ones, while at the same time Harry faces the usual problems

4 attached to attending school: homework, crushes, and teachers. Around the time of the final exams, the books reach their climax, in which Harry confronts Voldemort himself, or one of his Death Eaters, Voldemort s followers. After a chaotic, confused battle, Harry sits down with Albus Dumbledore for a long talk in which Dumbledore provides him with new and important information ( Harry Potter ). This formula may also have contributed to Rowling s success; the structure that Rowling uses makes each book more familiar in progression, and thus more charming. Though Harry Potter has been decried as low-quality fiction and a promoter of such negative abnormalities as witchcraft, for example, most will not and cannot deny at least a few of the positive influences of this series. Harry Potter has gotten young children to read books that are hundreds of pages long. In an age in which the younger generations do not appreciate literature, Harry Potter has resulted in millions of children devouring enormous books at late hours in almost disturbingly short spaces of time (Grossman). In fact, the most notable trend attributed to Harry Potter has been an increase in literacy among the young ( Harry Potter ), a statement which can be supported by statistical evidence. In 2006, the Kids and Family Reading Report held a survey which found that 51 percent of Harry Potter readers ages 5-17 say that they began reading books for fun after discovering Harry Potter. The same study also reported that for 65 percent of children and 76 percent of parents, they or their children s performance in school improved since beginning to read Harry Potter. Charlie Griffiths, director of the National Literacy Association, has said that Anyone who can persuade children to read should be treasured and what [Rowling has] given us in Harry Potter is little short of miraculous. Additional praise has come from, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who stated, I think J.K. Rowling has done more for literacy around the world than any single human being ( Harry Potter ). Such a widely read series-so widely read, in fact, that it raises literacy rates-is inevitably going to impact society, not only in areas of entertainment and culture, but its values and beliefs as well. J.K. Rowling holds this power, and she seems to have used it well. In Harry Potter, we can clearly see an extended theme against discrimination which has continued even after the series came to an end; recently in a high publicized press conference at Carnegie Hall, J.K. Rowling brought her famous character Albus Dumbledore out of the closet by announcing outright his homosexuality ( Politics of Harry Potter ). In the seventh book, J.K. Rowling writes deeply about friendship and love, as well as suffering and death. Harry Potter held and still holds the power to change the values of our society, and though we cannot yet fully assess whether it has

5 wrought positive or negative changes overall, no one can deny that Harry Potter has indeed had some effect on those values, such values as friendship and acceptance, life and love. It was rather frightening, this vast sculpture of a witch and a wizard sitting on ornately carved thrones Engraved in foot-high letters at the base of the statue were the words MAGIC IS MIGHT Harry looked more closely and realized that what he had thought were decoratively carved thrones were actually mounds of carved humans: hundreds and hundreds of naked bodies, men women, and children, all with rather stupid, ugly faces, twisted and pressed together to support the weight of the handsomely robed wizards (Rowling 242). The seventh and last book of J.K. Rowling s Harry Potter series contains the above description of a frightening, sinister statue erected in the Ministry of Magic, the governing body in her world of magic, wizards, and witches. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows takes to new heights Rowling s extended theme of prejudice and discrimination, which has given Harry Potter a darker tone. In the world that Rowling has created, there are two kinds of people: wizards, or people who possess magic, and muggles, people who do not possess magic, or in other words, us. In the world of wizards, there are wizards and witches who believe that people possessing magic are superior to people who have not been born with such powers. As Rowling informs us, magical powers are innate; wizards are born wizards, and muggles are born muggles. Interestingly, wizards can be born from one muggle parent and one wizard parent, or from two muggles parents; this fact is a cause of social tension within the Wizarding World. Some wizards strongly hold the conviction that wizards born of muggle parents have descended from an impure bloodline, and are inferior to wizards whose ancestors possess magic. Thus, Rowling gives us the rather sinister, yet ominously familiar terms mudblood and pureblood. As Rowling proves throughout all seven novels, these terms, as well as the belief attached to them, are frighteningly unfounded on logic or fact, but as in the real world, even the most senseless convictions become dangerous when many people believe in them. Thus, all the more twisted is Lord Voldemort, the rather stereotypical Villain Who Wants to Take over the World, who desires to create a civilization in which muggles and mudbloods are subjugated to purebloods, who would dominate the earth cruelly, evilly, sinisterly, etc. (Rowling). The terms pureblood and mudblood may cause eyebrows to arch, and in truth, they are uncomfortably similar to the terms that were used in Nazi Germany by

6 Adolf Hitler s followers ( Politics of Harry Potter ). Rowling herself remarked that there are many similarities between Nazi ideology and that of the Death Eaters ( Politics of Harry Potter ). One of Rowling s most explicit, more meaningful motifs is blood purity. The entire series, in fact, can be thought of as a very long, extended case against blood prejudice. From the first book to the last, Rowling shows her readers that half-bloods and muggle-borns are in no way inferior to pure-bloods. Thus, we have characters like Hermione, who is a mudblood, but smarter than all of her peers, including many of purely magical descent. Several of Rowling s pureblood characters are utterly inane in comparison to some of their muggle-born contemporaries, or to their contemporaries in general. To further drive home her point, Rowling has also crafted an entirely different type of person, the Squib, or a wizard or witch of pureblooded descent who cannot use magic, as another way of illustrating that bloodlines and blood heritage are not so very important when judging the talent, potential, or worth in general of any individual. Rowling message is not merely an implicit or unintended one. Most of Rowling s themes are deliberate; she stated in an interview that her series is a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry ( Harry Potter ). Rowling s motif is indeed allegorical to racism and prejudice in the real world. In the magical community that J.K. Rowling has created, magical creatures such as elves, goblins, and centaurs, are treated as inferior; and the aim of the evil side is to create and rule a society in which wizards and witches reign supreme, and those not possessing pure magical lineage are subjugated under them. Such thought is just as terrifying as the doctrine of the Ku Klux Klan in the real world. There is no logic to that prejudice, for wizards and witches of non-magical lineage prove themselves to be intelligent and talented, often even more so than their counterparts of pure, magical lineage. Yet there are many, some more humane than others, while some more monstrous, who possess the most passionate believe in the above doctrine, and are willing to kill, torture, and die for it (Rowling). Like rain on a cold window, these thoughts pattered against the hard surface of the incontrovertible truth, which was that he must die. I must die. It must end (Rowling 693). You are the true master of death, because the true master does not seek to run away from Death. He accepts that he must die, and understands that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying (Rowling 721).

7 In the first quotation, Harry has realized and accepted his upcoming death. Ever since Sorcerer s Stone, readers have probably been wondering who, in the end, would triumph over the other: Harry, the hero, or Voldemort, the villain. Especially after the sixth book was released and the last book was oncoming, the public ravenously searched for the answer to this question, the result of the inevitable epic battle. At the very, very end, the result is that good wins over evil, but readers should have known at this scene, this uncertain, despairing scene, in which Harry accepts that he must die, that good is going to win. Because good has accepted death, and no longer fears it, because Harry is not afraid of death, which Voldemort has spent nearly his entire life trying to prevent, we should have known at this point that Harry will triumph. Even if by the end Harry is dead and Voldemort is alive, Harry has still won, because he has conquered death (Rowling). One of Rowling s major Harry Potter themes is the theme of death. Again quoting Rowling, My books are largely about death. They open with the death of Harry s parents. There is Voldemort s obsession with conquering death and his quest for immortality at any price, the goal of anyone with magic. I so understand why Voldemort wants to conquer death. We re all frightened of it ( Harry Potter ). Rowling has been writing this theme into her series since Book 1, but it was in Deathly Hallows that Rowling really began to write about death, and truly subject her characters to it, as victims and as onlookers. Her last installment stands out, not because of the Deathly Hallows quality of Rowling s writing, which actually seems to have deteriorated compared to the others, but because of the poignancy of its themes and the way that Rowling writes them. The other books may be described as fantasy entertainment and children s literature, but Deathly Hallows delved deeply, more deeply than the other books had, into the central themes that Rowling has been writing about since 1990, and into the exquisitely complex characters she had slowly been constructing since Harry was only 11 (Rowling). A Harry Potter book is not always well received by the prestigious literary community, as the maturity of the plot, the literary skill of the author, and the overall contribution of the series to modern literature, is critically analyzed. The world of artistic, cinematic, and literary critical analysis has become cynical; the critics have forgotten to pity the characters and value the themes. Tragically, when judging the value of a novel, it is critiqued on the usual technical criteria, and few consider its themes as relevant, valuable messages, and the characters as complex, often painfully emotional replicas of human beings. Harry Potter contains such themes and such characters, and in fact has carried

8 them since the first book, but the last one uplifted those themes to their final, wholesome completion, and brought those characters to the end of their journeys. The seventh book erased parts of, retraced, redrew, emphasized certain lines of, and added on to the complex, rich illustrations that J. K. Rowling has provided us of her protagonists, and less central characters as well (Rowling). The major themes of Deathly Hallows deal with pain, struggle, and friendship. There are times when reading the book is quite literally emotionally exhausting; the reader puts the novel away for the day drained and worn-out. The seventh book is the most miserable book of the series: it is, after all, the one in which Harry Potter must defeat Voldemort, the powerful, evil wizard who has gone so far as to split his soul into seven pieces. Harry and his friends are faced with the task of finding all seven pieces, including the one that is implanted in Voldemort s body itself. Thus, misery and despair permeate through the pages of this novel, and when love and friendship prevail in the end, it is all the more meaningful because of all the previous anguish that the characters, the good side, had to plow through to get to the end (Rowling). Deathly Hallows is certainly darker on an unprecedented level for Harry Potter. The characters of this novel undergo great tribulation and trial. They suffer their burdens, and eventually conquer them, but before they do, the intensity and the exquisiteness of their anguish are of such a level as to be poetic. A particularly painfully lovely touch was the locket, which contained a piece of Voldemort s soul that had to be destroyed. The locket was a great weight on the trio, heightening their hopelessness and frustration, all their worst qualities. The scene in which Ron destroys it is poignant and touching, as the fundamental good within him defeats the voice which came out of the locket and appealed to all his weaknesses, fears, and evils (Rowling). Feeling pain is intertwined with being human, as we all know. Thus, through the suffering of Harry, Ron and Hermione, the human qualities in them are all the more pronounced, and those qualities that they possess are not always good ones, but, after all, human ones. Some people say that when people suffer, they emerge as better people for it. In this case, also, it is clear, that torment is a major shaping force for these characters. After the trio wanders around miserably and aimlessly back and forth across the country, the action picks up at a certain point, and the rest of the novel is a great rush of puzzles and riddles, fights and murders, chases and escapes. By the time that we have reached the expected climactic battle between the forces of good and evil, Harry, Ron, and Hermione appear to be too busy to writhe in their own sadness by themselves, as well as together, which is something of a relief for readers. The final battle between Harry and Voldemort involves several fascinating twists and surpasses what was

9 perhaps expected; what most readers probably expected was a display of brawn and sheer power between the two during their last fight to the death (Rowling). The quality of the writing seems to have diminished by this last book, however, compared to previous installments in the series. Though the plot is fascinating and the characters almost painfully realistic, the prose is awkward and the sentences do not always read gracefully. Yet, such relatively lower quality of literary style actually heightened the intensity of several of the scenes, especially in those chapters in which Harry and his friends crisscross the countryside with no specific end and no means to that end, whatever it may be. Such a style seems to allow for more maneuverability in what Rowling is describing. The sentences, though often lovely and dramatic, are technically and compositionally not the most graceful. But as stated previously, in Deathly Hallows, what mattered more than the actual literary talent of the author, the high literary merit of the novel, or the maturity of it, was its themes and the characters. Such themes as love conquers evil, friendship prevails over whatever problems may arise, and blood line has little to do with merit, have been expressively portrayed. The characters are ones to care deeply about, and to think and feel with. They have had seven books to develop, each over three hundred pages long, and it shows in the end. The story itself has had seven books to progress, over a few thousand pages, and has finally culminated in a conclusion worthy of the decade that Harry Potter has been on the bookshelves. The epilogue of Deathly Hallows, though, titled Nineteen Years Later was a disappointment and unworthy of most everything that preceded it (Rowling). Despite such an unsatisfying and corny epilogue, I believe that I can put all seven Harry Potter books away, to be taken out again for light reading later on at intervals, without regrets.

10 Works cited Books Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer s Stone. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, Periodicals Grossman, Lev and Andrea Sachs. Harry Potter and the Sinister Spoilers TIME 9 July 2007: Grossman, Lev. She Says Hallows, and He Says Goodbye TIME 19 March 2007: 52. Internet Harry Potter. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 7 Nov < Politics of Harry Potter. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 4 Nov < Harry Potter film series. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 7 Nov <