The Power of Harry Potter
Jk Rowling and Reading Madness
Nov 7, 2008 Kathy Schlossmacher
Everybody loves Harry, and if not Harry everyone loves somebody in the series of books about the boy wizard who dedicates his life to fighting evil. This evil comes in different forms, but most notably in the person of Voldermort, the evil villain who killed Harry's parents and has tried numerous times to do away with Harry and friends throughout the series.
What is the Power of Potter
How did Harry manage to capture the attention of the world? Written by J,K. Rowlings in 1998, the first book changed the face of children's literature. Everyone, kids and adults wanted to read about Harry's adventures. Even reluctant readers suddenly became enamored of this young boy and his adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Harry's not had an easy life. As a very small child he witnessed his parents' murder and survived an attempt on his own young life. Left with the Dursleys, a muggle or non magical related family, Harry was stuck in a cupboard and forgotten about. He was a bit like Cinderella, always getting the most work, blamed for everything bad in the Dursley's life and the least love.
Therein lies Harry's power. All kids, rich or poor, with or without parents, hard or easy lives, suffer some sense of voicelessness. Children in our society are not allowed to make their own decisions, and for good reason, kids need to be protected and loved, but here is Harry whose voicelessness symbolizes the lack of voice that all children share on some level.
Kids identify with Harry. They get Harry. They understand his mistreatment through their own perceived mistreatment and they identify with the freedom he lives when he is away at school. While supervised at school by a myriad of adults, he has a certain freedom to make choices and have adventures that no self respecting parent would allow. Kids like adventure. Harry's adventures, while fraught with danger are in reality safe from the perspective of the armchair reader.
For children who live in poverty or difficult homes Harry is a champion. There exists for these kids a sense that Harry makes it out each semester by going to school. He is an example they can follow, a sign that they too can get out of their circumstances if they draw on their own power, even if they don't know yet what that power is.
Harry comes to his wizard ability slowly, discovering it only when invited to go to Hogwarts school. Children only gradually come into their own sense of independence and power. While they see adults around them exercising power and independence, they don't quite understand that they too will come to that. Harry's stories illustrate his gradual realization of who he is and what he can do.
Harry is Different
Kids also identify with the fact that Harry is different. He is a wizard; he is a wizard who comes from a line of wizards that mixes both wizarding and non wizarding families. He is not the elite wizarding student like his arch enemy Draco.
While he has a father and mother who had quite looming reputations in the wizarding world, they neither were the elite and they had to carve their place for themselves. In the world of Harry's parents, evil was running amok and they choose good, the non so easy choice. Kids recognize the heroics in such a choice and they root for Harry to make those choices too.
Harry's resilience is also a source of identification for kids. Harry takes abuse at the hands of wizarding students jealous of his reputation as the boy who lived. He lives under the specter of possibly being evil, despite his innate goodness because of his connection with the evil Voldermort whose spell could not kill Harry.
At times he is suspect of carrying some kind of evil within because of his survival. Often the students at Hogwarts are not nice to him, yet he plods on, not giving up. Kids like that. They get picked on, teased, neglected by other kids. Sometimes they lack friends and feel like they don't fit in. From Harry they can learn resilience to adversity. Most importantly it is not a giving up, giving in resilience, it is a fighting resilience; Harry is always coming back, he simply does not give up in the face of all kinds of evil and injustice.
The Face of Magic
While some parents worry about the magic and the witchcraft they see in the Potter books, they neglect to understand that this magic and witchcraft is simply a tool. It is the way that Harry manages to survive, to get through all he must endure.
Kids get that. They realize that they must find their own ways through life just as Harry does and discover the tools that they possess to do so. These books will not turn kids into Wicca practicing; spell imagining, black magic practitioners, seeking the devil on a dark street. Instead by witnessing Harry's use of his own power, his magic, they see a role model on how to live.
The Literary Power of the Hero
Harry is a hero, he is a role model. Harry is someone kids can look up to for his innate goodness, his quest for justice and his own fight for independence. Harry's deep friendships inspire kids to seek out one another and develop friendships on their own.
Harry's adaptability and resilience models for kids that they too can overcome uncomfortable situations and achieve goals. Harry is a hero, not a threat to the well being of children. It is time to let kids sit back and enjoy all that Harry has to teach them.
Harry Potter
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