Harry Ever After?

I wrote the following as an assignment for my seminar class in which we are reading all 7 books in the Harry Potter series.  I thought I would share as I really enjoyed the prompt we got to talk about.

     When you think of fairy tales, you probably think of princesses, poison apples, and phrases like “happily ever after”.  What you probably don’t think of is the Harry Potter series. However, in essence this series is a rags to riches story similar to your favorite fairy tales about princes and princesses.  Many of the fairy tale elements seen in the first book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone include: giving children hope, gaining a higher state of selfhood, and the predominance of orphans.

            In the beginning of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, we are confronted with an orphaned boy left on the doorstep of his seemingly normal aunt and uncle’s home.  Orphaned children are predominant in many fairy tales.  It is common to see fairy tales where parental guidance and/or presence are gone.  This leaves the children to find new role models and friends who appreciate their natural-born abilities.  In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry’s aunt and uncle are covering up a big secret and look at caring for Harry as a chore.  Harry is left without respect, guidance, or praise from them.  He seems all alone with no one to encourage and guide him through life.

            Another element in fairy tales is their ability to give their young readers hope.  Children want nothing more than to be given a voice and have control over their lives.  Their lives are typically powerless, while their parents guide their decisions and scold them when they don’t follow the rules.  Often the children of fairy tales are at first voiceless and eventually come upon people who give them power and praise. Instead of only being punished for breaking the rules, they are giving more freedom and treated more like adults.  We see this distinctly in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone when after discovering his secret and being sent off to Hogwarts, Harry is finally able to have control in his life.  He is given more respect and freedom than he ever had while living with his Aunt and Uncle.  And when he discovers his talent for quidditch, he finds a whole audience at his school that not only encourage his abilities, but also empower him.

This kind of new found power found in fairy tales, and in characters like Harry Potter, is very important in providing young readers with hope.  These readers can see the main characters go through a transformation that helps them gain a higher state of selfhood.  They go from being alone and with little pride in themselves, to characters whose worth has been realized by others and themselves. We see these characters find who they are meant to be, whether it’s a young wizard surrounded by friends and professors who care for him, or a young princess finally given love and fame, and we are given hope.

Overall, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone like fairy tales, gives children who read it hope that they will soon be recognized for their own abilities.  The main characters in these stories often start out orphaned or without parental guidance.  Throughout the course of the story, we see them transform into young people with more pride and self-confidence as their circumstances and the attitudes towards them change.  Fairy tales and the Harry Potter series help to guide and inspire children in a way that doesn’t feel like learning.  Instead while thinking they are just reading about action and adventure, they are really learning morals and life lessons that they never expected.  So, while Harry Potter isn’t marketed to children as a fairy tale, maybe it really is a story that we view as being Harry ever after.