Thinking Activity: "Harry Potter "

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 Harry Potter series are those on which lots of internet sources can be found, and also on mostly any topic related to Harry Potter. So for our academic purpose we have asked to do a web quest on selected topics from Harry Potter. To open the table of web quest . Web quest first table click here

1)      Feminist reading of Harmione’s character in Harry Potter: How do the character portrayal of Harmione and other female characters support feminist discourse?

Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling has made an immense effect on the culture. People were talking that people are not reading but when Harry Potter published, people were in long cues for purchasing the books. It has a fantasy world and so people consider it to have children’s literature. It has many elements through which we can say that Harry Potter is children’s literature.

Rowling has used very simple language in these books so readability increases. Children can easily read and comprehend the books. Readability is an important part of children literature which these books are able to give. So the language is not a barrier for children. Second is that children don’t like books which have the perspective of adults. In these books we have children as main characters and the narrative follows the children. The hero of the books grows with the people who are reading it. So it keeps the connection with readers. Characters of the books are portrayed the same as real people. They don’t represent only good or only bad. They are not extreme in any way. They are with virtue and also with flaw. It also gives moral lessons to the children so they can get something more than only entertainment.

Apart from all these things, the fantasy world makes children pay attention to these books. Magic, invisibility cloak, people with mysterious abilities, flying things as well as people, all those magical spells and many more makes it fantastic children literature. With all these things, Rowling has not forgotten to give height to real literature. With all these fantasies she has woven social and political satire, power struggle and make her stand strongly and firmly. So with fantasies of the magical world Harry Potter books also have the harsh reality of present society.

2)      Discourse on the purity of Blood and Harry Potter: How do the novels play with the thesis of pure blood (Master Race) giving an antithesis by belonging protagonists to half-blood / Mud-blood? What sort of synthesis is sought in this discourse in the Harry Potter series?

“It is our choice, that shows what we truly are, for more than our abilities' ' says Dumbledore. By and large the Harry Potter series has been working on the idea of choice or better to say it has emphasised on choice. We can see that from the very beginning, from sorting hat to Harry going into the forest. The choice is the one which matters. There are phases where chance works more than choice, but choice is the one who dominates the narrative.

Voldemort has believed that his downfall is because of chance every time. He believed that it was a chance that Harry happens to catch him or defeat him. But in the case of Harry it was mostly a choice of Harry which had led him to do what he was able to do in the whole series. Maybe Rowling wants to make a magical world, which is not dominated by fate. Things happen because people choose to act on them. If we talk about prophecies, then even it is not fate driven. Prophecies become true because characters choose to act according to prophecies. Harry’s mother chooses to sacrifice herself for her son and that is why Harry is alive. Same way at the end Harry chooses to sacrifice himself to protect Hogwarts. Harry chose to let Voldemort apply the killing charm on him. Because of that killing charm one horcrux which Voldemort has unknowingly left inside Harry and that got destroyed by Voldemort himself that was a chance. At some level chance is taking over choice. As in the fourth part, “Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire '' here the name of Harry comes as pure chance and then he doesn't even have a choice to withdraw it. So here it is like one has to do something compulsory. But then in the last two parts Harry, Hermione and Ron choose to find every horcrux and destroy it, so her choice is more powerful than chance. This is how Harry Potter has a theme of choice and chance.

3)      Confronting reality by reading fantasy: How does reading Harry Potter make us confront the reality of our everyday existence?

As a Children’s literature Harry Potter is full of moral lessons. One of the very important moral lessons is to distinguish between good and evil. At every step of life, it will ask a person to make a choice and based on those choices our future depends. So morally good choices help people. As in the friendship Hermione and Ron made the choice to be defeated in chess and let Harry win, because he has to complete the task. Harry also saves Malfoy from the fire and that was his moral choice. Harry can’t ignore it. It is his personality to help others.

If we talk about philosophy, then the most important lesson was to fight with ourselves. It is said that when we are constantly looking into the dark then darkness is also peeping inside us. Same has happened with Harry. He is constantly in the connection with Voldemort, if not physically than mentally. But while fighting with evil, evil has made an impact on the goodness of Harry. We can see sometimes evil is over powering the goodness of Harry. So the evil breeds evil. Very unknowingly also but Voldemort has left his part of soul in Harry also and that part is overpowering goodness of Harry sometimes. Here where Harry needs to fight. This fight is not with others, it is with his own self. This can be applicable to all. No one is thoroughly good or thoroughly bad, people are both. They should keep balance between both. When one is overpowering the other one needs to fight with one’s own self.

4)      Self-Help culture and Harry Potter: How does it stand by an argument that Self-Help Culture serves as a tool of social control: it soothes political unrest . . . one blames oneself for not getting better off is society and remains in one's own pursuit of self-invention, blaming oneself for the failure rather than the systems?

Hermione is major character in the Harry Potter series. But how we will look at the portrayal of female characters if we do feminist reading of Harry Potter series. Many critics and people thinks that Rowling has not left any place to criticise her work from feminist point of view. We can not agree with 100%. As we can say that there are 50 – 50 of appreciation and criticism both. We can appreciate these novel by looking at the female characters as strong and knowledgeable. At Hogwarts Umbridge is the one who is slowly taking over the power from Dumbledore. The other point to ponder is here mother has given more importance than father. Harry’s mother Lily is shown more effective and presentable then in comparison to Harry’s father James. Mother of Ginny, Ron, Fred and George is Molly. She is house wife but when it comes to her daughter she can fight with Bellatrix and can defeat her also. So this way we can appreciate Harry Potter series from feminist perspective.

Still there are some points, from which we can criticise the Harry Potter series. We can see that there are female characters presented as very strong but then they all are under the power of men. The head of Hogwarts Dumbledore is man, Harry is man, Fudge, the minister of ministry of magic is man, and if we look on the other hand Voldemort is also a man. So all main power positions are in control of men, women are working under the power of male. Hermione in part two “Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets” she was patronised and Ron and Harry was there to complete the task. The task was also typical which askes to save princess from the villain. Then we can see Hermione crying and can not control her emotions but in the same situation Harry is presented as strong who can control his emotions. Then Hermione was more concerned about her looks, while we don’t see any male or boy pondering on looks. We can see in ``Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban '' Hermione is talking about her hair. In the last part when she turns into Bellatrix she asks how she looks, so still here we can see that Rowling has presented the stereotype which says women are more concerned about their looks. Apart from this the name Moaning Myrtle is also showing the stereotype of women only crying all the time. So these are the points from which we can criticise Harry Potter series from feminist perspective.

5)      The discourse of Power and Politics in Harry Potter: How does the Ministry of Magic control the resistance? How do they prosecute the ‘Other’?

Pure blood, Half blood and Mud blood, these are the terms which are used in the Harry Potter books. These terms are to discriminate against people, and also to show power related to blood. Everywhere there is a concept of superior and inferior, the base might differ. Here the base is blood. People in the Harry Potter series used to think that those who belong to pure blood families, have more talent and those who don't belong don’t have talent. But here making the hero Half blood and Hermione, Mud blood, J. K. Rowling is showing very clearly her stance. So it proves that talent can not be inherited, it should be acquired.  Secondly pure blood doesn't give a certificate of goodness in person. We can clearly see that Malfoys who belong to Pure blood family are in the favour of Voldemort and Harry who is Half blood and Hermione who is Mud blood they are fighting against the evil. So everything does not come with blood.

Then we can see racism also. As Rowling herself has not portrayed any other race then white as leading or main characters. All other races are just there as crowd or supportive characters. We can also see the master race and slave race as there are house elves and goblins, who serves wizards. Goblins are inferior to the wizards. House elves are same as slave in real world. They treated very badly by their masters. We can see two house elves here. One is Dobby, who later on becomes free elf, but before freedom we can see how badly he has treated by Mr. Malfoy. Second is Kreacher, who is house elf of Black family. So in these ways we can see the discourse on purity of blood in Harry Potter series, in which by making hero from Half blood family we can see the sign of Rowling that she doesn’t believe in master race or pure blood idea.

6)      Children’s Literature and Harry Potter: How far does J K Rowling transcends the canonical confines of children’s literature and claims the heights of ‘real’ literature?

Harry Potter has given many lessons which can make these books as self help books. For instance, finding happiness in dark times, doing duty honestly even if people don’t like you, recognize friend in disguise, loyalty, sacrifice, friendship, persistency, these all are the topics which can be taken as self help. But there is something more than this which make this books different from others self help cultured books. Those books asks to find reason of failure in one’s own self. It soothes the political agenda of government, who tells people that there is something lacking in you and not in the system. Harry Potter differs from these culture. Harry Potter teach us to question the authority. It teaches to doubt power also not only own self. It also teach us to fight against the power. We can take example of Dumbledore’s army, which was trained by Harry. That army was to fight against the Ministry of Magic. So it doesn’t soothes the agenda of government. It is rather teaching that question authority is betterment for society.

7)      Speculative literature and Harry Potter: What is speculative literature? How far Harry Potter qualifies for the same? Does J K Rowling transcends the confines of speculative literature and claim the heights of ‘real’ literature?

The writers of fantasy books have never thought of only writing it for entertainment. Fantasy books always have some moral lessons or some lessons which people can put into real practice. Harry Potter is also the same kind of novel which helps us in living our real life, but it is told to us by fantasy stories. The first and most important lesson according to me is to accept failure. Harry is the hero of the novels but then even sometimes he can not win some battles, but then he accepts his failure and moves forward. This gives another lesson worth putting into real life practice is persistence. Failure or success doesn’t mean stop. One should have to keep on doing the same till they don’t achieve the height. This means one should never give up. Another important thing is love and sacrifice. It was Lily’s love and sacrifice which kept Harry alive.

Other important lessons which we can take from Harry Potter is questioning the authority. It always happens in real world that people thinks what authority does is always good but it is not so. One should always question the authority and one should also stands for the right thing or rights of the people. Some lessons which can be helpful in developing self is that everybody has good and bad side. No one is thoroughly good or bad. People have both, most people have balance, in some case one is overpowering other. So while thinking about ourselves also we should remember that no one is thoroughly good or bad. Second one is overcoming the fear of death. In nature, who take birth, they have to die. No one can be immortal. So fearing the truth of the life is not so good thing to do, so one should overcome the fear of death. These are some points through which Harry Potter series can help people to confront reality by reading fantasy books.

8)      The theme of Choice and Chance: How does Harry Potter discusses the antithetical concepts of ‘choice’ and ‘chance’?

Whole Harry Potter series has the dynamics of power politics. Questioning authority is the base of good democracy, but when power is not ready for criticism or in the name of reformation when power controls and separates people then they don’t accept questions as something good, but rather they take it as disloyalty towards the authority. This started happening in Hogwarts also when the government started interfering with education. Education is the base of people. They learn to ask questions when they are educating themselves. But when people from the Ministry of Magic have become professors in school the atmosphere has started changing. Umbridge is a member of the Ministry of Magic, she came into education. Very first thing which she did was she started giving punishment for asking questions and started separating those who asked questions. When fellow teachers ask her anything she accuses them of being disloyal to the authority. She has taken all the freedom of students. There are more restrictions on students in the name of discipline. Whole Hogwarts has changed because of her large list of rules and strict application of those rules. This is how they have controlled the resistance.

 After all these things Voldemort is coming into power because the death eaters are now becoming professors at Hogwarts. Those professors had strictly acted on the idea of Voldemort. That idea was of pure blood. They have started catching those who do not belong to pure blood. This is how they make the non pure bloods, Others. On this idea of Others they have started killing muggles and half blood people. So this is how power politics works in Harry Potter.

9)      The theme of Love and Death: How does Harry Potter make use of age old theme of Love of the dead as well as living as protecting armour? How does Harry Potter deal with the concept of Death as something inevitable?

Speculative Fiction is an umbrella term, which includes many other terms like science fiction, fantasy, horror, history, utopia, dystopia and super hero story. There are many terms which can be applied on Harry Potter books. We can say that Harry Potter series are fantasy books, as it take us to the world of magic and mystery. Though it is world of magic but it gives scientific reasons also, as it shows process of every magic so it can be considered as scientific fiction. With science and magic it gives elements of horror. All those dark forests and giant animals, at some place give feeling of horror. These books are not connected with real history. It does have the events of present world. But it obviously is talking about the history of the Hogwarts school. So it includes history also. At last we have super hero tale also. This is the story of a “boy who lived” and “chosen one” so we can take Harry as superhero. All these terms make Harry Potter a speculative fiction.

10)   Moral and Philosophical reading of Harry Potter: How does the concept of ‘evil breeds evil’ unfold in Harry Potter? What is the significance of Harry being one of the Horcruxes?

Harry Potter with lots of other elements has not left out the age old theme of Love and Death. The very first scene of love and death comes together is murder of Harry’s parents. They sacrifice themselves because they have loved Harry and that has given protection to Harry. Same thing Harry does. He goes to the forest willingly to sacrifice himself for the sake of Hogwarts protection and it also has provided protection to the Hogwarts. In matters of love Dumbledore also says that don’t pity dead, pity living and pity those who do not get love. So this is how the theme of love is portrayed.

Death is also one of the themes of Harry Potter. It gives very good insight into death. It says that one can not cheat death. One or the other day people have to die. Another thing it says is that no one can bring dead ones back to life. Dumbledore also says that there is no such spell which can bring the dead back. It also says that to win over death means to win over the fear of death. If you don’t fear dying then death can not do anything wrong to you. This is what Harry also does. When he was going into the forest to Voldemort he thought about death and he very calmly accepted the death. This gives very good insight. There are those people also who have feared death and now they are Ghouls in Hogwarts. So if someone fears death they remain in between. But Harry has very bravely overcome the fear of death. One last thing which it says about dead and dear ones that they can’t come back but they live in the heart, they don’t go away. They are always with you.

11) Christianity and Harry Potter Series: How many times Harry and his friends visit Church? how often in the moments of crisis when they are helpless, clueless, they pray to God for Grace or Mercy? How many times God's Grace saves them from the Devil Lord Voldemort? Does J.K. Rowling use Christianity at any level in the entire Harry Potter series?

Harry Potter series are one of those where there is complete denial of God or Religion. Hogwarts and all the characters in the novels have gone through the hardest time of their life. But then even we did not find anyone who is praying to God for help. There is not a single church also in the setting of the novels. When hard times come people choose to act rather than pray. We also didn’t find that anywhere it was God’s miracle that saved any of the characters or anywhere God is coming and saving characters from catastrophe. So in one way J. K. Rowling has denied the existence of God or Religion in her books. Maybe these are all the reasons why some Christians are not happy with the books and they are asking people to not to read it. They believe that these books are celebrating Satanism. Because magic and witchcraft are symbols of Satan worshiping in the Christianity.

If we look from another angle then we can find some elements of Christianity here. The very survival of Harry and then taking him to the safe place by three people itself is like the story of Jesus. Then in the last parts Harry is referred as “Chosen one”, which itself is similar to Christ. So this way we can also find Christianity in the Harry Potter series.

What is your opinion on this:

As per Mitchel Foucault's theory "Power and Knowledge. J. K. Rowling similarly conveys the message that questions the power because what is written is not always true in the post truth era. These lines by Rowling are also relevant in the present era, we see in many political leaders and media who keep on speaking lies for remaining in the power and also there are many speeches or write fake history. So, we have to cross check everything rather than follow blindly.

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