Magic Makes Morals
Manifest: A Look at the Ways in which J.K. Rowling’s
Harry Potter Series
Has Developed the Ethics of Generation Y
When most great novelists set their pens to
paper or hands to keyboards, the intent is to tell a story. They do not first
think of the morals they will impart on their readers or the lives they will
change. Instead they first think of the story they need to tell. This is what
J.K. Rowling did when she began writing her Harry Potter series. She had an
idea, a story that needed to be told. This idea grew to be a seven-book series that
was translated into over 60 languages and has sold over 325 million copies
worldwide (Granger xi). According to Steven Pappas, “No other series of books has been read by
more people; and nearly all of the film adaptations are among the top-grossing
films of all time.” This story has reached hundreds of millions of people
through its words on the page and story on the screen because Rowling wrote a
fantastic tale.
Crucial to the storyline of the Harry Potter series is the
morals and values of Rowling’s characters. The media has a large impact on the
formation of children and young adults’ attitudes. As Geo Athena Trevarthen
writes, “Whatever color their ink, words on the paper open us to bigger
realities. Great books don’t just pass the time; they bring a greater sense of
meaning to our lives. They tell us things about the world and ourselves” (13).
Because of the epic reach of the novels and the time of the books’
publications, the influence of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has profoundly affected the Millennial Generation and has
been a key component in the development of this generation.
To prove this theory, one must first define the Millennial
Generation and examine several values of the Harry Potter series that have affected this generation. The Millennial
Generation, or Generation Y, is most commonly quoted as encompassing those born
from around the year 1982 to approximately 2002. These are individuals of the Internet
age, cell phones, hundreds of television channels, social media, and, of course,
Harry Potter, the dates of which expand from 1997 to 2011 if one includes the
year of the first novel (Harry Potter and
the Sorcerer’s Stone) to the last year of the last movie (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II).
Many Millennials came of age with Rowling’s main characters, Harry Potter, Ron
Weasley, and Hermione Granger, as the novels each consist of one year of the
characters’ schooling from age 11 to 17. To see the effects of Rowling’s novels
on the Millennial Generation, this discussion will highlight issues of
acceptance and diversity: racial, gender, and sexual orientation equality and
the value of blood and monetary status. The paper will also examine the
formation of character in the Millennial Generation: what is considered to be
good and evil, the ability to challenge tradition and authority and think
critically and how this affects political choices, and the attitude that the
world must come together to create a better society.
When defining the Millennial Generation, most sources will describe
the group as being confident and optimistic when compared to older generations.
Faced with difficulty finding jobs in the Great Recession, most Millennials
still believe while they are not earning enough now, they will someday (Handley).
They are the generation of school shootings; the War on Terrorism; busy,
over-planned lives; the lowest parent-to-child ratio in American history; the
most highly educated generation in history; and a group who grew up with
technology at their fingertips. This generation is agreed to be more tolerant
than those before it and to hold a new respect for the family (Gaylor). Through
these points, whether historical factors, opinions brought on by those who came
before the Millennials, or opinions of Generation Y about themselves, and many
others, the Millennial Generation has come of age (or is still coming of age)
and like all generations before it, certain media influences have played a role
in its development.
As stated
above, many Millennials came of age with Harry, Ron, and Hermione and all the
rest of Rowling’s cast of characters. Being a generation of easy access to information
and an expectation for almost instant results—what Generation Y-er would one
ever see using a card catalogue, or even an encyclopedia for that matter, when
she could simply Google her research—one would assume Millennials would be the
last people to choose to read books of hundreds of pages like those that
Rowling wrote. But they did. By the millions. The Millennials read the Harry
Potter series so much so that critics
have called them the Muggle Generation and fans have created ways to connect
with one another all over the globe with Internet sites like Mugglenet.com, The
Leaky Cauldron, and Mugglespace.com. They have video games, Harry Potter music
by Wizard Rock bands, and recipes for wizard foods, and colleges around the
nation have started Quidditch teams. Millennials dressed up and attended
midnight releases of the series’ movies adding some of the top grossing movies
of all time to Rowling’s list of achievements. With this range of influence one
can begin to understand how Harry Potter helped form the values of an entire
generation.
Anthony
Gierzynski of the University of Vermont asked a group of students (members of Generation Y) what
they thought defined their generation and the students listed the following:
“school shootings in Columbine, Colorado; the Monica Lewinsky scandal; cell
phones; the 2000 presidential election; the development of the Internet;
September 11, 2001; the Bush presidency; reality TV; wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq; hip-hop culture; Hurricane Katrina; global warming, Facebook, YouTube,
the move toward same-sex marriage, and Harry
Potter” (42). One student went on to say:
Harry Potter was one of the
great cultural events of our generation’s [the Millennial Generation’s] time.
Harry Potter helped raise the children of our generation by instilling in them
some of the basic moral conceptions of right and wrong. In the series there is
a very clear “good side,” epitomized by Harry Potter, which embodies the basic
qualities of love, loyalty, courage, and forgiveness. Juxtaposed is a very
clear “bad-side,” epitomized by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, which embodies all of
the negative qualities of deceitfulness, vengeance, and killing. (Gierzynski 42)
Short of Facebook, YouTube,
and the hip-hop culture, Harry Potter was the lone media source that this group
of Millennials thought defined them. These students latched on to no other
television shows, books or movies.
Joel Stein of Time
Magazine berated Millennials as being the “Me, Me, Me Generation,” claiming
that “the incident of narcissistic personality disorder is nearly three times
as high for people in their 20s as for the generation that’s now 65 or older…”
and writing that while the parents of Millennials attempted to boost their
children’s self-esteem they really boosted narcissism. Stein believes another
quality of this generation is its sense of entitlement. Already mentioned is
the desire of this generation to have everything at their fingertips; Stein
would add that with the easy access Millennials have to their peers with cell
phones and social media, they struggle to develop under the influence of older
individuals, an influence that Stein’s sources deem necessary. While Stein and
his sources would not approve of Millennial teens gaining influence from more
teens as they already believe Millennials receive too much influence from their
peers, Anna Kelner writes of the attacks on the Millennial Generation’s
development on her blog with reference to Rowling’s stating that “[f]or a
generation [Generation Y] that has been given everything except, perhaps,
strong values, Harry Potter is the best source of moral guidance it has.” Maybe
self confidence (or narcissism) is not a quality older generations like seeing
in Millennials; however, many values of the Harry Potter series are becoming
headline news and as the newcomers to America’s political and social scene,
these values are going to bear weight whether older generations accept this or
not.
What, then, is the moral guidance Harry Potter has given to
Generation Y? As mentioned above, one of the defining characteristics of the
Millennial Generation is their higher degree of tolerance as compared to older
generations. The Pew Research Center conducted a study in 2010 of trends in the
Millennial Generation as compared to Generation X (who Pew Research Center
defines as being born between the years of 1965-1980), The Baby Boomer
Generation (1946-1964), The Silent Generation (1928-1945), and the Greatest
Generation (born before 1928) (Millennials
11). The Pew Research Center found that Millennials are significantly less
likely to view interracial marriage as “a bad thing for society” (5% Millennials,
10% Generation X, 14% Boomers, 26% Silent) (59) and researchers found that
Millennials consider a higher level of liberalism and tolerance to be one of
the top three characteristics that sets them apart from the previous
generations (13).
A great theme of the Harry Potter series is the value of
befriending those who are historically considered marginalized. Harry’s first
friend in the wizarding world is Hagrid, a half giant who, readers later learn,
was kicked out of Hogwarts School of Witch Craft and Wizardry and banned from
using magic but still does so illegally (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stone 59) and born a half-giant (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of
Fire 428). Full-blood giants are feared and considered to be
inferior by the witches and wizards of Rowling’s universe. The headmaster of
Hogwarts and one of the greatest wizards of all time in the Harry Potter
series, Albus Dumbledore, however, trusts Hagrid with some of the most
important tasks in regards to taking care of Harry, the young boy prophesied to
save the world from evil Voldemort, the Dark Lord. Hagrid flies Harry to his
aunt and uncle’s home as a baby and he is in charge of bringing Harry into the
wizarding world for the first time. Hagrid also proves to be one of Harry’s
most loyal and loving friends throughout the series by caring for the boy like
the family Harry never had. Even though Hagrid looks like someone most wizards
would count as a lesser creature, Harry extends the kindness Hagrid shows to
him and loves Hagrid in return for the person Hagrid is rather than for the
person Hagrid looks like he is.
Rowling gives her readers numerous other examples of times
where Harry looks to the character of a person (or human-like creature) rather
than the appearance of that person regardless of what others’ preconceived
notions are of these beings. Remus Lupin, a werewolf, becomes a father figure
to Harry. Lupin teaches Harry how to fight dementors (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
236), Harry’s biggest fear; and Lupin
is also a part of the Order of the Phoenix, a society of wizards who bravely
fight Voldemort to the death rather than hide from the fight against evil or
join the Dark Lord’s forces (Rowling, Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 58).
Like Hagrid, Lupin is trusted by Dumbledore during Harry’s third year to teach
young witches and wizards even though many of the children’s parents would
think lowly of Lupin if they knew of the man’s otherness.
Rowling casts Dumbledore as the man to lead her young witches
and wizards to become more interested in the person’s character rather than the
person’s looks. Half-giant Hagrid always has a warm fire for Harry to sit by
and shabbily-dressed Lupin always has a chocolate frog for Harry to recover
with as opposed to the beautiful Gilderoy Lockhart who is more interested in
using Harry to boost his own image than helping Harry in his quest and learn
and grow as a young wizard as he does in Harry
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Harry also receives significant help from Dobby, a house-elf,
and Firenze, a centaur, during his quest. These creatures are both regarded by
many wizards as being inferior. House-elves are forever bound into servitude to
wizarding families, required to wear nothing but rags and physically beat
themselves if they break their families’ rules or speak ill of the family.
Wizards like Ron who grew up in the wizarding world do not typically question
the way of this abuse. They see this enslavement as normal. “‘We’ve been
working like house-elves here!’” Ron cries after a long night of homework (Rowling,
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 223).
Those new to the ways of witches and wizards, like Hermione, however are
appalled at what they witness. Hermione rages at the way house-elves are
treated, showing readers that even if something is almost universally accepted
as “normal” does not make the poor treatment of others, no matter who or what
they are, right.
While the house-elves are doomed to unabashedly worship and
forever serve their masters, centaurs choose to be independent of the wizard
community. They are wary of wizards and most feel they should stay out of
wizarding affairs. Firenze, however, goes against his community when he chooses
to help Harry. He also sees beyond the small scope of what his community
believes is the best choice and chooses to follow his own path and be
independent. He chooses to do what he believes is right even though this choice
means he is ostracized from his entire group of like beings and is forced to
live with those of another kind. The first time he helps Harry in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Bane,
a member of Firenze’s herd, yells at Firenze, ‘“What are you doing? You have a
human on your back! Have you no shame? Are you a common mule?”’ (Rowling 257).
In Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix, Dumbledore employs Firenze to teach Divination and his herd
attacks him seeing this employment an act of betrayal to their kind (Rowling 601).
Unable to return to his herd, Firenze remains at Hogwarts for the next two
years even fights alongside Harry and his friends during the last battle at
Hogwarts against Voldemort (Rowling, Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows 745).
Important to all of these creatures and the role they play in
showing Millennials the value of tolerance is Dumbledore’s belief in the
goodness of all of them. Dumbledore custodies Hagrid to take Harry to his
aunt’s house after his parents are killed even though Hagrid is both a half
giant and did not finish his schooling. Dumbledore trusts Lupin to teach his
students and values him as an integral player in the Order, which will lead the
fight against Voldemort. Dumbledore entertains Dobby’s wish to be paid when he
goes to work at Hogwarts when no other house-elf had probably had to courage to
ask for (or the agency to desire) such a thing (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of
Fire 379). Dumbledore employs Firenze to teach his students
Divination even though Dumbledore knows the other centaurs’ ill feelings toward
wizards and their abandonment of Firenze. As Sarah Quartley writes:
Essentially, Dumbledore is concerned with the
individual. The metaphorical issues of race, class, ability, and achievement
that J.K. Rowling constructs in the world of Harry Potter carry little or no
importance for Dumbledore. In this way, Dumbledore expresses to youth and
adults alike that what society perceives of them is of no matter as long as
they are fighting for or doing what is right and good.
Youth are constantly told that they are the
future of the world. Rowling has given Millennials a perfect teacher in
Dumbledore and an excellent peer in Harry to show America’s youth how to move
forward with less bigotry and judgment. Through her story telling and not
through lecture, Rowling captivated a generation when their minds were forming their
worldviews. She taught them to look past appearances and to look into the
character of every individual before judgment. Her influence has shown its
prevalence in Millennials views on tolerance versus the views of generations
before them.
Another
large topic in America’s media today is the tolerance of gay, lesbian,
transgender and bisexual individuals. While the issue of gay rights is not ever
touched on in Rowling’s series, she did stir the pot when she told some 2,000
fans that the great wizard, headmaster of Hogwarts and mentor to Harry, Albus
Dumbledore, is gay (Siegel). ABC News writer, Hanna Siegel quotes a fan’s note from
the Harry Potter fan site The Leaky Cauldron: “This is a victory for
homosexuality the world over…Dumbledore is iconic, and I can’t wait for all
those little children to hear about this. I am so insanely proud of [Rowling]
for doing this.”
Pew Research Center’s study on Generation Y and previous
generations finds that a major difference between Millennials and the
generations before them is their exposure to, and relationships with, gay
people. Pew Research finds that over fifty percent of Millennials have gay
friends or family members compared to forty-six percent of Generation X,
forty-four percent of Baby Boomers and twenty-four percent of the Silent
Generation. Pew researchers believe that because of this exposure, Millennials
are more comfortable with the issue of gay marriage with almost two-thirds of
Generation Y-ers polled being in favor of gay and lesbian marriage (62). Pew
Research also finds Millennials to be the only generation in favor of gay
marriage (51). Siegel quotes Rowling stating that Rowling believes her novels
are a “prolonged argument for tolerance.” While Rowling’s teachings may not be
the main factor in the drive for tolerance toward gay people, gay marriage
rights have become a highly debated topic during the height of Millennials’
political coming of age and the teachings of tolerance and equality Rowling has
helped guide her millions of Millennial readers.
In addition to writing about the
benefits of judging others based on character rather than appearance or sexual
orientation, Rowling also uses the value of character over blood and/or wealth
status to help teach Millennials to extend their tolerance to all those around
them, no matter a person’s background. As Sirius tells Ron, “‘If you want to
know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not
his equals’” (Rowling, Harry Potter and
the Goblet of Fire 525). Both of Harry’s best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione
Granger, are of backgrounds that many prominent wizarding families would look
down upon. Ron’s family, while consider pure blooded (no non-magical blood in
its bloodline), is scorned by other pure blood families because of the
Weasley’s kindness toward non-wizards and their lack of money. Ron’s father,
Arthur Weasley, works for the ministry of magic in their Misuse of Muggle
(those who are non-magic) Artifacts department. Luscious Malfoy, another pure blooded
family line, says of Arthur’s job, “‘Dear me, what’s the use of being a
disgrace to the name of wizard if they don’t even pay you well for it?”’ (Rowling,
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 62).
However, the Malfoys continuously show themselves to be of low character despite
their wealth and pure blood status—joining with Voldemort, mistreating their
house-elf, bullying others—and the Weasleys continuously show their noble
character—opening their home to Harry as if he were family, becoming leaders of
the resistance against Voldemort. The sheer contrast between the Weasleys and
the Malfoys teaches readers that all the money in the world cannot buy good
character nor does the purest blood breed goodness.
Even being
born into a family with no magical blood, Hermione Granger is the smartest
witch in her class at Hogwarts. Her quick thinking and precision of spells save
Harry and others countless times throughout Rowling’s series. However, no
matter how much more intelligent and better at spells she proves herself to be,
there are several students who still see Hermione as beneath them because of
her non-magic parents. Draco Malfoy and others like him who believe in the
sanctity of pure magic blood call Hermione and others like her “Mudbloods.” When
Malfoy calls Hermione a Mudblood, Ron explains to Harry and Hermione, ‘“It’s
about the most insulting thing he could think of…Mudblood’s a really foul name
for someone who is Muggle-born…There are some wizards—like Malfoy’s family—who
think they’re better than everyone else because they’re what people call
pure-blood…I mean, the rest of us know it doesn’t make any difference at all”’
(Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets 116). Hagrid goes on to comment that there has yet to be a spell
that has stumped Hermione showing that magical prowess and talent cannot be
damped by one’s origin.
Hermione
serves as a great inspiration to Millennial females. One Millennial says of Hermione,
“I cannot remember any shows or movies I watched, or books I read in my youth,
that had a strong female protagonist. Hermione Granger, the lead female
character in the in the Harry Potter series, was like me. She liked to read…to
write…to learn. She was smart…confident… and she grew into her beauty”
(Gierzynski 77). Rowling shows her readers that no matter where they came from,
the content of their mind and heart are what matter, and these are the things
she urges her readers to look to when judging others, not the status of their
familial background.
Additional
to Ron and Hermione’s backgrounds, even Harry himself is of “mixed blood” as
his mother was a Muggle-born witch and his father of wizarding ancestry. According
to Pew Research, Millennials are far less likely than any generation before
them to believe that interracial marriage is a “bad thing” for society (52).
Rowling displays her case on this issue with the marriage of pure blood wizards
(Ron Weasley) marrying Muggle-blood witches (Hermione Granger) (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 755)
as well as those who marry someone with “tainted blood” like Remus Lupin, a
werewolf, and Nymphadora Tonks, a witch (Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows 46).
To
show Millennials’ tolerance as a result of the Harry Potter series, a study
conducted by Anthony Gierzynski and Kathryn Eddy will be examined. Gierzynski
and Eddy’s survey polled members of the Millennial generation who read all
seven Harry Potter books, who had read some of the books and/or saw the movies
and who had neither read the books nor seen the movies and found that those who
had read the novels had “significant warmer feelings toward different groups
[of people]” (Gierzynski 52). The groups of people Gierzynski and Eddy polled
their American youth about were Muslims, African Americans, undocumented
immigrants, and homosexuals (51). With the above indication that Millennials
are more likely than older generations to support gay and interracial marriage,
the influence of Rowling’s teaching of tolerance to all can be seen. Gierzynski
and Eddy’s study also found that Millennials who read Rowling’s series believe
the American government should promote more equality than those who did not
read the books. As shown above with the contrast in character of the Weasley
family and the Malfoy family, Harry Potter favors a hard-working middle class
over blood and monetary status.
As
stated earlier, many observers of the Millennial Generation feel that this generation
is a confident one. Whether these people are critical of the Millennials’
confidence, like Stein, or feel Generation Y’s optimism toward the future is a
positive result of their self-confidence, some of these feelings could be
attributed to Rowling’s series. Important to a story written for a young person
is that the protagonist be a young person as well. Harry is brave and smart and
a strong character, sure, but he is also one very important thing—a child. So
many Millennials grew up along with Harry and saw him save the world, but also
make mistakes, get detention and have crushes just like them. Harry, Ron, and
Hermione are students to whom most American teens can relate even though the
characters are living in a magical world. Not only does Dumbledore teach
readers and his students about tolerance, but he also teaches them to believe
in themselves. When Harry and Dumbledore go to find a horocrux in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the
pair has to fight off some of the darkest magic either has seen. A potion
weakens Dumbledore and Harry continuously tells his professor that things will
be all right. Dumbledore responds, “‘I am not worried, Harry…I am with you’” (Rowling
578). Dumbledore believes in the power of a young, inexperienced wizard to
protect him and through the entire series of novels to save the world. This
confidence is part of what researchers have found to be such a prominent trait
in Millennials. This generation is looking to do big things; they just need to
be given a chance.
Harry Potter
not only grew up an orphan and found out that he is part of a secret magical
world quite separate from the world he thought he knew, but also he finds that
he is prophesized to save both the wizarding and Muggle worlds. As stated
above, being new to the magical world, Harry must find allies who will help his
cause. Just like the real world, however, Rowling’s characters are
multi-dimensional, being neither wholly good nor wholly evil. Harry and his
readers must look critically at every situation to learn who to trust and who
to hold at a distance.
Millennials
have grown up in a world where they can easily hide behind computer screens and
texts messages rather than confront each other in face-to-face interactions.
However, Gierzynski and Eddy found that Millennials who read Harry Potter are
more likely than those who did not to participate in political activities
“reflecting the story’s need to act and, efficacy of doing something to fight
what is wrong in the world” (58). Anna Kelner writes of the complexity of
Rowling’s characters and their influence on the morals of Generation Y by
stating:
In Harry Potter, heroes can quickly turn
into foes, and Rowling demands that her readership evaluate and reevaluate
their understanding of the difference between good guys and bad guys. Thus, she
provides the Facebook generation [Generation Y] with a rare and important
opportunity for moral reasoning. As Lauren Hinnendyk and Kimberly A.
Schonert-Reichl wrote in 2002 in the Journal of Moral Education,
“because the Harry Potter stories are classic fairy tales—that is, stories that
revolve around the struggle of good versus evil and moral obligation—the
exploits of Harry Potter and his colleagues not only serve as a source of
entertainment but can provide an impetus for children’s social and moral
development as well.”
And Harry does act. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, eleven-year-old Harry
chooses the dangerous paths of saving Hermione from the troll (Rowling 176),
jumping on a broom for the first time and diving to save Neville’s stolen Rememberall
(Rowling 149), and thwarts Voldemort’s attempt at stealing the Sorcerer’s Stone
(Rowling 292). Breaking the rules and confronting danger head on are clearly
not the easy choices. Harry shows his fans that one is never too young to make
the brave choice—the choice in favor of good over evil.
Rowling does
not make the line between good and evil clear-cut for her readers. Her
characters are flawed just like the people Millennials will deal with their
whole lives. Harry comes of age struggling with his hatred and distrust of his
potions teacher, and known former Voldemort support, Severus Snape. While Snape
gives Harry plenty of reason to dislike him—mocking Harry in class, insulting
Harry’s father, and giving Harry detentions—at the end of the series, in
Snape’s final breaths of life, Harry and readers learn that Snape had been
protecting Harry and began his life as a double agent against Voldemort because
of his love for Harry’s mother. This twist helps teach readers to not take
everyone at face value—a lesson Generation Y, the “Facebook Generation,” can
take to heart especially when so much of their interactions are done via
profiles on the internet. As Kelner writes:
By prompting her audience to explore the
nebulous concept of character—something which cannot be determined by a
Facebook profile or memorized from a textbook—Rowling provides her readers with
information not readily accessed in the modern age. With religious attendance
in decline, Generation Y must discover a new source of morality that can help
them reason through modern challenges like the worth of the ever-expanding War
on Terror and the rules of “netiquette”.
Kelner goes on to
quote Dumbledore’s perfect summation of “the root of Harry’s success: ‘Of house-elves and children's
tales, of love, loyalty, and innocence, Voldemort knows and understands nothing. Nothing. That they all have a power
beyond his own, a power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth he has never
grasped’ (Rowling, Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows 709-10).
Love and loyalty play a huge
role in Rowling’s novels. Love saves Harry time and time again from Voldemort’s
power. This obvious goodness proves to be the strongest magic in the wizarding
world. Love gives a baby the power to defeat one of the most powerful wizards
of all time. Harry’s loyalty to do the right thing and stay true to those he
loves gives him the fortitude and the followers to defeat Voldemort a second
and final time at the end of the series. If, as Kelner states and other studies
on Millennials find (“Millennials” 85), religion is not playing as significant
a role in the development of Generation Y’s morals as it did in those
generations of the past, what better teaching of morality than the triumph of
love and loyalty over evil?
In addition to characters who seem
bad but are actually good, Harry often comes in contact with characters of
authority, who one would assume are good because of their leadership positions,
who are actually quite corrupt. Most of these officials are in the political
sphere of the wizarding world. Andrew Lowosky writes that Rowling portrays the
Ministry of Magic as “as a rigid, ineffectual bureaucracy incapable of
protecting its subjects from any meaningful threat.” Cornelius Fudge, Minister
of Magic while Harry first comes to Hogwarts, denies Harry’s eyewitness account
to Voldemort’s return (Rowling, Harry Potter
and the Goblet of Fire 705). In the same novel, Rita Skeeter’s embellished
reporting for The Daily Prophet calls
readers to examine what they read and make their own judgments rather than
believing whatever they are told. In Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Fudge discredits Harry’s claims of
Voldemort’s return and takes control of the media to portray Harry in a
negative light in attempt to keep the wizarding community in the dark about
Voldemort’s threat. Fudge refuses to believe that Voldemort could return and thus
leaves his people clueless about the danger that is growing in the shadows. In
this way Rowling shows her readers they need to be willing to read and listen
critically and make their own judgments rather than blindly follow those in
power.
Gierzynski
and Eddy found Millennials who read Harry Potter to be just that: skeptical.
The pair asked Millennials if they believed in common conspiracy theories “such
as the notion that the moon landing was fake, that global warming is a myth,
that there was a conspiracy to assassinate JFK, and that the US government
staged the September 11th attacks…As hypothesized, Harry Potter fans
were more likely to pick the skeptical responses” as forty-four percent of fans
polled answered that they thought there was truth to one or two of these
theories as compared to fifty-two percent of nonfans (60-1). This evidence
shows that many Millennials who read Harry Potter are more cautious about what
the government tells them to believe.
Rufus Scrimgeour takes over as Minster of
Magic after Fudge and, while he takes the threat of Voldemort seriously, he is
just as ineffective at stopping the Dark Lord as Fudge was. Scrimgeour wants
Harry to join up with him because Harry has support of the people and if Harry
backs Scrimgeour then so will the rest wizarding world who opposes Voldemort.
Harry, however, does not agree with Scrimgeour’s politics and refuses saying:
“…Has anyone ever
tried sticking a sword in Voldemort? Maybe the Ministry should put some people
onto that, instead of wasting their time stripping down Deluminators or
covering up breakouts from Azkaban [the wizarding jail]. So is this what you’ve
been doing, Minister, shut up in your office, trying to break open a Snitch?
People are dying—I was nearly one of them—Voldemort chased me across three
counties, he killed Mad-Eye Moody, but there’s been no world about any of that
from the Ministry, has there?” (Rowling, Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows 129-30)
Ineffective in an entirely different way than Fudge was,
Scrimgeour tries to hide the truth from the public about the danger that they
are in. He chooses to give the people only part of the truth, rather than admit
that he does not have total control over the growing threat that Voldemort
imposes.
Later in Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort and his followers have
effectively infiltrated the Ministry of Magic; taken over The Daily Prophet, the wizarding world’s main body of media; and
posted followers in several positions in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry. Voldemort creates a world in which no one is sure whom to trust. Once
again, Rowling teaches her readers to question what they hear and read.
The impact
of skepticism in the trustworthiness of political figures can also be seen in
Millennials’ voting habits. In their book, Harry Potter and the Millennials: Research
Methods and the Politics of the Muggle Generation, Gierzynski and
Eddy write:
…[w]e acquire political values and views from our culture. We
learn how to act and what to value in our society from people…and institutions…and
the media…From our preteen years to our adolescence, when we are just becoming
aware of the political world and forming our initial impressions, these agents
can have a tremendous impact on the values and outlooks that form the basis of
our politics. The Millennial Generation became engrossed in Harry Potter at
just this time in their political socialization, heightening the potential
impact and making it so that the tales from the wizarding world may have a
significant impact on shaping the nature of their generation. (8)
Gierzynski and Eddy go on to investigate the voting habits of
the Millennial Generation. In line with Pew Research Center’s study on
Millennials, Gierzynski and Eddy found Millennials to be some of Barak Obama’s
strongest supporters in America’s 2008 election.
As discussed above, Millennials who read the
Harry Potter series were found to be more eager for participation in volunteer and
political activities. Obama’s campaign for hope and change resonated with a
generation who has been heavily affected by the most recent recession, but
hasn’t lost optimism about the future (“Millennials” 40). According to Pew
Research Center, Millennials are far more likely (88%) to believe that they
will earn enough money to life a happy life in the future as compared to
seventy-six percent of Generation Xers and forty-six percent of Baby Boomer
polled about the same recession (40). While Generation Y’s optimism may not be
dimmed by the recession, Gierzynski and Eddy found Harry Potter fans to be more
skeptical of the government than non-fans (71). “In interviews with fans, most
attributed their views on government to the Harry Potter series” (Gierzynski
71). When asked if a Millennial could see anything from the Harry Potter series
in the student’s self, one student responded: “…[A]n awareness about corruption
in government…I think that maybe people who like, were aware of it, in the way
that reading would, sort of, react to it faster?” (Gierzynski 71).
This desire for change and skepticism of
government can be seen in the Millennials heavy support in the 2008 election
for President Barak Obama. Pew Research Center finds that those over the age of
thirty, voters of generations before the Millennials, were near split between
Obama and John McCain (Obama 50%, McCain 48%). Millennials, however, were
overwhelmingly supportive of Obama (Obama 66%, McCain 32%). Not only did Pew
researchers find that this was “the largest disparity between younger and older
voters recorded in four decades of modern exit polling” but they also found
that “after decades of low voter
participation by the young, the turnout gap in 2008 between voters under and
over the age of 30 was the smallest it had been in any election since 18- to
20-year-olds were given the right to vote in 1972” (63). In Gierzynski and
Eddy’s study of Millennials, they found that a higher percentage of Harry
Potter fans believed that historians would view the George W. Bush
administration unfavorably (83%) than non-fans (74%) (58) and were even more
likely to have voted for Barak Obama in 2008 (Obama 58%, McCain 15%, Other 3%,
Did not vote 24%) than non-fans (Obama 45%, McCain 23%, Other 3%, Did not vote
29%) (61).
Because of the level of corruption Harry
sees in his government, he sees no better answer than to take matters into his
own hands. Harry must learn to depend on himself and those he has found to be
trustworthy rather than believe that the political system and the adults around
him will solve problems. Harry and his friends have taught Millennials to not
only be skeptical of the government and media, but they have also taught
Generation Y to take matters into their own hands and be active in changing
that government as examined in the high voter turnout among Millennials. As one
member of Generation Y told Gierzynski and Eddy, “What Harry did for me as I
was growing up was to provide me with a template for human interactions that I
could refer to as I struggled through different social situations…he showed me
examples of when to be respectful, when to rebel, how to be gracious, how to
resolve conflicts with friends and foes alike” (76). Clearly Harry Potter
functioned as a positive role model to many children who grew up with him.
In addition to Harry’s critical examination
of those in power and his desire to act, Harry also teaches his readers to
practice non-violence. The members of the Order of the Phoenix, those who
oppose Voldemort, reprimand Harry time and again for using disarming and other
non-violent spells to repel his foes. However, Harry tells them, “‘I won’t
blast people out of the way just because they’re there…That’s Voldemort’s job’”
(Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows 71). Rowling shows her readers that even though Voldemort and his
followers would aim to kill Harry, Harry will not compromise his character and
take another’s life. Much like Harry and his friends detest the poor treatment
of house-elves and other marginalized characters in the series, Harry has
strong beliefs in the value of human life. While this is shown countless times
throughout the series, possibly the most telling interaction of Harry’s
morality is the bravery he showed in saving Draco Malfoy’s life.
Draco Malfoy is an enemy to Harry from
almost the onset of their first year at Hogwarts and is even poised to kill
Harry’s most trusted mentor, Dumbledore, for Voldemort during book six, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. In
the last book of the series, even when Malfoy’s allegiance to Voldemort is
clear, and Malfoy and his cronies are firing killing curses at Harry, Ron, and Hermione
in the Room of Requirement, Harry insists on risking his own life, and the
lives of his friends, to save Malfoy, his enemy (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 633). This unwavering
integrity and commitment to do what he believes is right, no matter the
consequences has resonated with Millennials who are fans of Rowling’s series.
Gierzynski and Eddy found that, “…Potter fans seem to reflect the series’s [sic]
lessons on the use of deadly force from the series, showing less support for
the death penalty and disagreeing with the statement that hunting down and
killing terrorists is the best way to deal with the threat of terrorism.” When
Gierzynski and Eddy asked Millennials, “would you regard the use of torture
against people suspected of involvement in terrorism as acceptable or
unacceptable?” thirty-one percent of nonfans found torture acceptable while only
twenty-one percent of fans did (56-58). Pew Research Center also found
Generation Y, along with Generation X, to be significantly less supportive of
the use of military force to achieve peace (79). Shifts toward a more tolerant
community, an optimistic but quizzical mind toward politics, and a desire to
create a less violent world are all becoming themes research has shown
Millennials are working toward for the future of their world. Rowling’s
fictional characters have given Generation Y peers to show them a way to make
this world a reality.
The optimism of Millennials is repeated time
and again when researchers write about this generation. The world mentioned
above, tolerant, open-minded, peaceful, may sound like a utopia to generations
before Generation Y, however, these youth see this future as attainable.
Millennials believe they have the power to create change. They put their faith
in a president who campaigned for change. They have followed a fictional boy
who strove for a better world and helped destroy the evil around him to create
it.
Unlike their world of instant information,
the power to change their future will not be instant or easy. Harry Potter
taught Millennials that they have the choice to make the changes they want to
see in their world. While the difference in percentage
may be small (Millennials 57%, Generation X 54%, Baby Boomers 52% and Silent
Generation 39%), Pew researchers found Millennials to have done more volunteer
work in the year prior to their survey than any other generation before (83).
These researchers also found Millennials to be slightly more likely than older
generations to boycott brands with whose social or political activities they
disagreed and were slightly more likely to buy from consumers who Millennials
felt had good social or political views (“Millennials” 84). Being the
generation with the lowest incomes as they are either students or just
beginning their careers, that Millennials are making choices to volunteer their
time and purchase products based on merit rather than price speaks volumes to
the level of commitment many members of Generation Y have to changing the world
around them into what they view as a better place. Volunteerism and product
boycotting and buycotting, buying products because the consumer values the producer’s
practices (“Millennials” 84) may sound like small steps, but they are steps
toward change nonetheless.
Millennials also
know that their small contributions can create worldwide change when a group of
likeminded individuals can start working as a whole. As a generation partially
defined by school shootings, terrorism, a recession, and war, one might think
Millennials would find optimism a hard attitude to follow when looking toward
the future. However, as has been found by many researchers and repeated
throughout this discussion, Millennials’ spirits have not damped. Millennials
have bright views of the future and part of this could be because, like Harry
Potter, Millennials know that they are not in the trek alone.
From her very
first novel in which Hermione’s knowledge (Rowling 286), Ron’s chess skills (Rowling
283), and Harry’s bravery (Rowling 292) break through a labyrinth of tests
meant to stump even the most powerful and clever witches and wizards when the
students are only eleven, Rowling shows readers that they are at their greatest
strength when combining their skill sets with those of their friends.
Dumbledore constantly preaches the power of the collective group when
withstanding evil versus the power of the individual. When Lord Voldemort
regained his body in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore
addressed his students and faculty and those of two visiting schools from other
wizarding nations by saying, “…we are only as strong as we are united, as weak
as we are divided. Lord Voldemort’s gift for spreading discord and enmity is
very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of
friendship and trust. Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if
our aims are identical and our hearts are open” (Rowling 723). In this passage,
Rowling perfectly conveys to her readers the message Millennials heard from her
for so much of their formative years: together, one strong group can effect positive
change in the world no matter their differences in background.
Pew
researchers found Millennials to put the most value on their relationships with
others as opposed to making large sums of money or being famous. Most
Millennials felt that “being a good parent,” “having a successful marriage,”
and “helping others in need,” were, respectively, the most important things in
life as opposed to “being successful in a high paying career,” “having lots of
free time,” and “becoming famous” (18). This echoes Hermione’s feelings in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
when she tells Harry, “‘Books! And cleverness! There are far more important
things—friendship and bravery…” (Rowling 287). Millennials are focusing on each
other rather than, as Stein would believe, themselves. In this way they will
move the world forward.
Millennials
are ready to make their generation’s mark in history. They have learned from
generations past, technology of the future, and their present peers. They look
optimistically toward hope and change and know they can make a difference
together no matter what the current situation is. They know the spell for
success will not take the magic of Harry Potter’s world, but one they create
with a change in the treatment of others, a willingness to act and a skeptical,
but optimistic attitude. They know they can be successful because peers of a
fictional universe have shown them how. J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter taught
Generation Y how to move their nation forward by their own terms rather than by
the terms of the officials in place. They have been taught love and loyalty are
the most powerful magic they can use in making this future a reality. Rowling’s
words helped spur action in a generation many accuse of being glued to their
computer chairs. Her story taught these youth to trust themselves, question
what has been done before, and put their faith in others based on the person’s
heart rather than background. If Generation Y’s Voldemort is intolerance,
apathy toward giving time, and violence, Millennials are ready with the magic
of their optimism and eagerness to face their foe. They have time and a great
story’s role models to fall back on when they need to be reminded what a young
generation can do. As the generation poised to take the reigns in the future of
America, Rowling has given them the best role models and teachers to know that
they, and the rest of their peers have nowhere to go but up and forward. They
have all the confidence they need and have learned, as Dumbledore taught them,
“‘…it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow up to be’” (Rowling,
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 708).
One could reform his statement to be that it matters not the state of the world
a generation inherits, but how they progress that world and as has been shown,
Millennials are willing to take and optimistic about taking the steps to change
their world. Rowling’s words in print and on screen truly brought more meaning
to the lives of millions of Millennials, teaching them about the world and
their place in it and there is nowhere for Millennials to go but to go but
forward using the magic they create together.
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