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May 2nd was International Harry Potter Day and to celebrate, let’s dive into the wizarding world of Harry Potter. The wizarding world of Harry Potter takes readers into a different realm of magical beasts, wands, spells, and a storyline of love, loss, and redemption. When readers flip the pages of these books, magic comes to life. Author J.K. Rowling does not only capture the hearts of her fans through spells and fantasy but through a complex storyline with intricate character dynamics and personalities. The characters of the Harry Potter series are not black and white but instead, represent real people with personalities that do not fit into the main category. While the Harry Potter movies are an aesthetic sensation, they cannot capture the complexity of the books. There are many things from the books that the Harry Potter movies do not capture or cannot capture in their entirety.
Ron Weasley’s Character Development
One of the novel’s protagonists and Harry Potter’s best friend, Ron Weasley, is the second youngest child with five older brothers and one younger sister. He is able to befriend Harry quickly and represents Harry’s gateway to learn about the Wizarding world. Coming from a well-respected pureblood family with generations of wizards before him, Ron has the respect of a pureblood wizarding son but not the economic status to back it up. Ron possesses the confidence of a deeply loved child, yet behind this face lies insecurities of constantly being outshone by his older brothers. To put it simply, even though his heart is normally in the right place, Ron can be a knucklehead. J.K. Rowling writes the Harry Potter novels from the perspective of Harry and his friends growing up; thus, we see characters like Ron struggle through the normal troubles of adolescence and life.
From the first book to the last, this transformation in Ron is hard to capture in the movies, as viewers of the movies cannot see the same details as readers of the books do. Ron is judgmental of people who do not fit in; in the first book, he finds Hermione annoying for being a goody-two-shoes and teases her. He even rolls his eyes at dorky characters like Neville, Hagrid, and Luna. Like most people, Ron wants to fit in and tries hard to be popular. With a quick temper and sharp tongue, Ron easily hurts the feelings of his family and friends. He is embarrassed by his mom’s hand-knitted sweaters and is quick to put down Harry or Hermione.
Throughout the books, we see Ron learn from his faults and grow past them. This is unusual for a character as most characters in literature have set in stone personalities, while in contrast, Ron wants to do the right thing and grow. One of the strongest examples is his treatment of House Elves. In the Wizarding world, house-elves are accepted as inferior than wizards. It is normal for wizards to treat them with little respect and see them only as servants. Through a majority of the books, Ron, who is a product of a pure-blooded wizarding family, treats house-elves with little respect or gratitude. He has learned prejudices from his wizarding family, and this lack of empathy is one of his strongest faults. Yet in the final book, Ron is the first to quickly try to save the House Elves from danger when Hogwarts is under attack. This shows a change of heart as Ron grows past his preconceived prejudices and thinks of the lives of a species most would find not worth remembering.
Harry Potter’s Loss
In the movies, the viewers witness Harry’s abuse and hardships, but its severity cannot be conceived like in the books. Dumbledore acknowledges that he has never seen one person carry so much weight and burdens on their shoulders, such as Harry did in all his years at Hogwarts. Orphaned as a baby and rejected by his aunt and uncle who raised him, Harry is a very lonely child who is unsure of himself. After entering the wizarding world, he is shocked by his fame yet remains genuinely humble because of his rough upbringing. All Harry truly desires in this world is to be loved and accepted, with a deep desire for a family of his own.
In the novels, J.K Rowling touches on Harry’s loneliness in ways that the movies cannot capture. When Harry has to go home over summer breaks to the Dursleys, he spirals into a pit of despair. He becomes bitter towards everything — the Dursleys, life, Dumbledore, and even his friends Hermione and Ron. Harry convinces himself that no one truly cares for him and spitefully curses them. In reality, Harry does not genuinely hate his friends or wish bad unto them; he is just deeply lonely when forced to return to the place he suffered so much trauma and abuse. When his friends don’t write him fast enough, or he doesn’t hear any news of the wizarding world over his summer breaks, to protect his heart, he develops a defense mechanism against the people he cares for most. This personality trait showcases that Harry has not healed from the rejection he experienced from the Dursleys and presumes that, like his relationship with the Dursleys, the people he cares about most do not share the same affection for Harry as he does to them.
Harry desperately yearns for a parental figure, and he finally finds that in Sirius Black. Although their relationship can be strained at times like most parent-child dynamics, Harry looks up to Sirius and finds deep comfort in his affections. Before the two reunited, Harry jealously watched his classmates receive letters and presents from doting family members every morning while an orphan; he would receive nothing. After Sirius enters Harry’s life, he fills that deep hole of a father. In a battle at the Ministry of Magic, Harry would watch Bellatrix murder Sirius. After Sirius’ death, Harry would fall into a depression. When he was alone, he would wish for the company of others. And when he was in the company of others, he would wish to be alone.
Not even the sunny weather and ease of the beautiful Hogwarts grounds could cheer Harry up as he grieves for his godfather’s death. This is a key character development for Harry, as he experiences the loss of the one father figure he had in his life. In the movies, the actor Daniel Radcliffe has a few sad scenes where he looks dramatically into the distance reflecting on Sirius, but nowhere can the movies capture the complexity of Harry’s pain as the books do. At the end of the series, Harry realizes that he is the last Horcrux that needs to be destroyed in order to defeat Voldemort. Harry was an accidental Horcrux, one that Voldemort never meant to make, and because of this, the two have an unnatural connection throughout the series that haunts Harry. Only because of Harry’s hardships in life is he able to understand the sacrifice for the greater good and sacrifices his life so that Voldemort can be defeated. Harry, more than anyone, understands the need for sacrifice and bravely walks into his death with only the thought of his loved ones on his mind.
Society For The Promotion Of Elfish Welfare
In the movies, the Society for promoting Elfish Welfare or S.P.E.W. for short is cut completely. In the books, the Society for the promotion of Elfish Welfare is created by Hermione after being disgusted by the treatment of house-elves at the Quidditch World Cup. After realizing that Hogwarts employs hundreds of house elves, Hermione decides to take a stand and creates S.P.E.W. in order to raise awareness for the mistreatment of house-elves. Although her efforts have little effect, she still puts her whole heart into it. Every night in the Gryffindor common room, she shakes homemade S.P.E.W. pins in people’s faces and tries to recruit her classmates to join with little success.
Most of her classmates have little to no interest as it is commonly accepted in the wizarding world that house-elves be treated with little respect. House-elves are indebted to families or their work without any pay, vacation, or sick time. No matter how cruel they are treated, house-elves are expected to stay loyal and always obey their masters. In the books, we see the cruelty of house-elves through the treatment of Dobby from the Malfoy family and the treatment of Winky by Mr.Crouch. If house-elves disobey their masters, they are forced to self-harm and punish themselves.
While the Society for the promotion of Elfish Welfare is a small blip in the storyline, it is a key developmental moment for Hermione. While most wizards don’t question accepted practices in the wizarding world, Hermione can look at social issues from a different perspective. Coming from a non-wizarding family and growing up in the human world, Hermione can look at long-accepted customs from the perspective of an outsider. This perspective comes to use as without Hermione’s brains and ability to think outside of the box, Harry and Ron would’ve died in the first book. Hermione’s passion for correcting injustice is what makes her a great protagonist, as she will stand up for what is right even if she is the only one standing.
Real Life Issues From Racism To Social Inequality
Part of what makes the Harry Potter books so incredible is the way J.K. Rowling is able to string social issues from the world into her books of magic and spells. J.K. Rowling introduces the harshness of life into her stories, and disguises them behind the prefaces of magical constructs. Many authors will discuss powerful concepts in their stories, but not many authors are able to discuss powerful concepts in their stories in a way that J.K. Rowling freshly introduces them. In the wizarding world, wizards are categorized into different social classes. First, there are the purebloods who come from a long line of wizarding families. They are called pure-blooded because their blood has no tainted human blood in their family lineage, thus making them “superior” to other wizards.
This concept goes along the same line as generational wealth and “old money,” where those born into this privilege are automatically respected above others. Next, there is the category of mublood. Mudbloods are wizards born into human families, like Hermione, and are the only wizard or witches of their family. They are seen as dirty and inferior because of their family’s ‘breeding’ with humans, and in the books, it is a slur used with great insult. Hermione has the word mudblood carved into her skin by the pure-blooded Bellatrix, showing the prejudice and discrimination mudbloods experience. It can also be presumed that Hermione’s status as a mudblood is the reason she pushes herself to be the best and excel in her studies academically. While being a pureblood or mudblood is not an end all be all, your status in the wizarding world definitely allows certain advantages, disadvantages, and connections between the groups, just like in the real world with being born into a rich or poor family.
Harry and Ron’s lives contrast each other. While Harry is orphaned and has no family, he is left a trust fund from his deceased parents and very financially rich. On the other hand, Ron is rich in family and love but comes from a destitute family who can only afford to give him hand-me-downs and the cheapest school materials, robes, and clothes. Ron is teased at school for having hand-me-downs and worn-down robes and is oftentimes embarrassed by his family’s lack of money. When his wand breaks, his family cannot afford to buy him a new wand, thus making the school year a disaster for him with a malfunctioning wand. A few times in the story, Ron will comment on this frustration, even stating how much he hates being poor. The daily struggles and unmet wants of Ron Weasley show the struggles of growing up without money and desire for more.
When the Harry Potter series begins, the reader is introduced to the aftermath of a war-torn world. Yet throughout the series, glimpses from the past are revealed as older characters share the experience of living during the height of Voldemort’s reign. Before Harry and the other young characters were more than toddlers, the wizarding world lived in an era of war between good and evil. Voldemort and his death eaters cast fear far and wide, as wizards were being murdered left and right, and death and despair were everywhere. Because of this war, Harry’s parents would be murdered in the fight against Voldemort.
Harry is not the only one who would lose his parents in this war; Neville Longbottom would also be orphaned. Neville is raised by his strict grandmother throughout the series, who is often hard on the clumsy young boy. Neville hides his sorrows behind his carefree demeanor yet carries the burdens of his loss every day. By accident, Harry would come across Neville at the hospital during Christmas and discover the fate of Neville’s parents. Neville’s parents were tortured into insanity by death eaters, becoming vegetables barely functioning, thus orphaning Neville. Neville’s life is an example of the devastating consequences of war, leaving children without their parents and forcing them to become an example of the destructive aftermath of war.
Severus Snape: Harry’s Protector
Lastly, the movies do not give the main villain Snape justice as he deserves. Throughout the movies and the books, Snape represents Harry’s biggest enemy. Snape is a cold-hearted professor, unfairly favoring Slytherin students over Gryffindor students and bullying Harry for most of his life. Snape even ‘murders’ Dumbledore and joins the death eaters when Voldemort rises back to power. Yet, the movies do not capture the bravery of Snape and the sacrifices he took to protect Harry and continue the fight for good. The movies briefly touch on this in a two-minute scene, yet Snape’s character arch is a long and slow reveal in the books.
Snape sacrifices his reputation and life as a spy for Dumbledore, falsely serving Voldemort for information to be used against him. Snape is loyal to Dumbledore, and even though it breaks his heart, he kills Dumbledore only after Dumbledore forces him to cover up their plan from the dark side. Snape even risks his life to protect Harry on multiple occasions; this deeply moves Harry, and Harry will even name a son after him. In his backstory, it is revealed that Snape is only cold and withdrawn from the world as a protective mechanism of years of bullying and unhappy home life that he endured. Snape represents how the hardness of life cannot sway a good heart.
Stories That Stay With Us Forever
As a reader, there are many moments in a book that takes your breath away. It is possible, but difficult to convey the same type of emotion when transitioning a story from a book to a movie. The Harry Potter series is known for many of these breathtaking moments, and although the emotional depth of them were attempted to be conveyed in the movies, it is not the same. The Harry Potter series is one of the most successful book series in modern literature, winning the hearts of fans across the world. Not only does J.K. Rowling tell a story of good versus evil, but she also does so in a way that draws readers in with plots, twists, and tears.
As Dumbledore wisely states, “Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both influencing injury, and remedying it.” (( Rowling, J.K., Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007. )). As international Harry Potter day passes, take a moment to enjoy the magical story of Harry Potter that will stay with you forever.
