Similarities Between Harry Potter And Lord Of The Rings

Great Books and Film Final Paper The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Harry Potter saga both have similar objectives and end goals. One man must journey to destroy an item and defeat the villain; in Lord of the Rings the villain is Sauron, while in Harry Potter the villain is Voldemort. While on the journey, the characters find items or come to places that have symbolic effects. This is true for both Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. These symbols are often used to further character development, foreshadow impending events, or just to have symbolic effects that may harm or help the journey that is taken. In the novel The Fellowship of the Ring, there are quite a few instances in which symbols are used to characterize one of the Companions,

Voldemort split his soul multiple ways into multiple items, which become known as horcruxes, which makes him weaker as a wizard but much harder to kill since you have to destroy the horcruxes to fully kill him. The locket found by Harry, Hermione, and Ron is wearable, as it is on a chain, and whenever worn, the one who bears the horcrux becomes irritable and often times violent. While Ron is wearing the horcrux, he snaps at Harry and Hermione and Hermione says “You wouldn’t be saying this if you hadn’t been wearing it all day” (Yates). The locket is a symbol of control over the characters, as a hindrance. The locket’s main purpose in the film is to hinder and stop the trio from achieving their goal and defeating Voldemort. The locket does its job well, as it splits Ron from the trio by angering him into snapping at the other two and then departing. It is also very hard to destroy since the only thing that can destroy it, the sword of Gryffindor, has been stolen or lost; thus causing a major hindrance in the story. The locket is used to both address the strength of the individual to overcome the effects of the locket but to also deter the story from continuing, as all the horcruxes

The Deathly Hallows are as follows: The Elder Wand, The Cloak of Invisibility, and the Resurrections Stone. The Deathly Hallows were given to three brothers as rewards for cheating Death, however the brothers were taken by Death as they abused their reward. All but one: The Cloak of Invisibility. As the youngest brother, the possessor of the Cloak, avoids Death, he begins to grow old. At his Death, the youngest brother gave his Cloak to his heir. The Cloak of Invisibility is a symbol of defiance towards the inevitable. Death is inevitable and when the youngest brother wisely chooses the Cloak, he begins to defy Death and escape him on multiple occasions, no matter how hard Death searched for him. This defiance towards him is what makes the Cloak a symbol. The Resurrection Stone and the Elder Wand are both symbols of ignorance and arrogance. The story of the Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone both end in the original owners being murdered or dying. The Elder Wand owner was killed by a rival wizard who heard of him bragging about his invincibility and the Resurrection Stone owner killed himself to be with the one woman he desired the Stone for. These are both symbols of ignorance and arrogance because of the unwise and improper uses of the Hallows. The Deathly Hallows are altogether a symbol of defiance because of the way they were acquired. The three