CPB: Harry Potter, pg. 1-100

During the days that the controversy surrounding Harry Potter and people were accusing JK Rowling of introducing witchcraft to children in a friendly way, I was happily soaking up as much of the series as I could. My mother would read the book to me every night and the shelves of my middle school, junior high, and high school were lined with the books. Let me point out that the town where I was born and raised is primarily populated by elderly residents; the type that one would think would have the most problem with witchcraft and wizardry, especially since the same people support an annual production of the Christmas Pageant at the local high school. Christianity in my town held very little concern for the books having any kind of sinful message. I guess I was lucky in that sense.

I could go into a rant about other books with magical or supernatural properties that people surprisingly never had a problem giving to their children to read (Chronicles of Narnia), but I don’t want to deviate too much from the purposes of this post. But I think that the reason that Harry Potter appealed to so many children was the concept that there was a magical world where they could live out their dreams and find friends. Harry Potter is humbled by his circumstances in the beginning, which makes him a good main character right from the bat. He does not have the knowledge of the fame he possesses, so the idea that that he is a wizard comes as a relief. His identity is reborn into a new life which is open for him to reform and shape himself by his choices. It is the kind of freedom that most children don’t have, just as Harry couldn’t have with the Dursleys.

Now then, on to some choice quotes:

“The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn’t there – or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn’t understand them, like a slug” (22).

Before I begin with an analysis, does JK Rowling have a special deal with slugs? They are mentioned several times throughout the Harry Potter series, even if they are described as disgusting creatures (like Ron barfing them up when he tries to jinx Draco in the second book with a broken wand).

Anyway, the main thought that occurs to me when I read this passage is how alike it sounds to people who may have committed the atrocities to the Jews in the Holocaust. They saw the Jews as less than human, without any mental capacity higher than the basics. That the Dursley’s treat Harry as though he can’t understand them dehumanizes him and leaves him in a susceptible position to be abused. I think it’s really sad that I can make a connection between such a light-hearted novel and something so dark as the Holocaust, but it’s an effective technique for arousing sympathy for Harry.

I find it funny that at one point, Mr. Dursley believes that if they go to a muggle hospital, they will be able to remove the pigtail given to him by Hagrid removed. It makes me wonder just how science and magic are reconciled in this world. Can it be removed, or does the curse have to be reversed? I guess it’s something only JK Rowling knows.