Harry Potter, the best-selling series by Joanne Rowling, touches on various points of controversy and important happenings that are going on today. The last book came out in 2007, but the last movie just came out a few months ago, and sparked a renewed interest in book fans and non book fans alike. The books and movies have slowly been getting attention over the years for their going against the norm of society. It rejects the dominant ideology by criticizing the way society is today, and how we should work to fix it by breaking stereotypes and changing (or working past) problematic ideas.
The series is about how the Dark Lord Voldemort tried to kill Harry Potter when he was a baby. He managed to murder his parents, but when he turned his wand on Harry, his curse backfired and rendered him incapable of having his own solid form, so he fled, leaving Harry as an orphan. Through the years, Harry grew stronger and continued to thwart Voldemort's plots of his murder, till the very end on his last adventure, where he finally triumphed over the Dark Lord for the last time.
The Harry Potter series rejects a lot of dominant ideologies in American culture. From the beginning, Albus Prcival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was seen as a symbol of wisdon, kindness, and security. People had an immense amount of liking and respect for the man, but next to no one picked up on one of his most important features: he was gay. He had a crush on his teenage friend, Gellart Grindelwald, and put off their final duel for years because of it. Should people change their ideas and respect for Dumbledore based off of this new realization? The book forces people to think about this. Something else it makes people think about is how far people will go to avoid what disturbs their lives. For years, Dumbledore had told the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, that Lord Voldemort would be back, and for years, Fudge ignored him. When Harry saw the rebirth of Voldemort at the end of his fourth year, Fudge refused to believe him and spread stories about how both he and Dumblrdore had gone insane for almost year. It was only when Fudge saw Voldemort for himself that he finally admitted that he might be back. Fudge, and the majority of the wizarding world, ignored rising deaths, dissappearances, attacks, and the words of Albus Dumbledore in favor of staying in their comfortable, safe, happy world. The book points out how society is scared of danger, and will ignore it for as long as possible, even untill it is almost too late.
1 comment:
It's sad how true it is that even the politicians of books mirror real world fear. It's almost as if they believe the public can't handle the truth. But, as beautifully said in Men in Black, "A person is smart. People are dumb." Somehow , once en masse, we loose composure. In one way, they're saving us from ourselves, in another, they aren't even protecting us.
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