Weasley Is Our King: The Politics behind Harry Potter

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Recommended: Symbolism in Harry Potter

No book in the 21st century has been discussed more than the Harry Potter series. J.K. Rowling’s masterpiece has been published in more than a dozen different languages and sold more than a billion copies. The film adaptations have broken box office records for the past decade and grossed over $7.7 billion dollars worldwide. Though Harry’s adventures at Hogwarts have intrigued thousands of young reader’s, it has not done so without controversy. The series has been so prevalent in our society and has made such an impact that many scholars have begun to compare it to Harriett Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which is believed to have fueled anti-slavery feelings that lead to the American Civil War.

When Time Magazine asked about the politics and message in Harry Potter, Rowling explained, "I wanted Harry to leave our world and find exactly the same problems in the wizarding world.” Harry and his readers can best see these similarities in the 2007 film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The reason for picking this film out of the other eight in the series is because there is not one element of the book that is not politically charged. Rowling places her characters in the midst of a ‘civil war’ of sorts; where their leader, Cornelius Fudge, uses the media and other means to cover up the existence of any disturbances being brought to the light by the society’s citizens. This film holds true to everything Rowling wanted it to be. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix mirrors our society in all areas of political science.

When the film opens we see Harry Potter and his muggle (non-magical) cousin Dudley Dursley being attacked by Dementors in a small London suburb. Dementors, being magical monsters, do not make thei...

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...is equivalent to the rise of Adolf Hitler; Death-eaters and Nazi are similar in their actions. Both parties killed in the name of purity and power. At the end of both wars you have a community that rose up and overthrew injustice. From Watergate to the Occupy Movement Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix takes us out of our world, but does not let us forget its problems.

As this class comes to an end we can be sure that the students in it will never see films in the same way. Harry Potter was the center of a lot of children’s worlds. The series and movies brought us joy and developed our imaginations. Looking back years later as adults and Political Science majors we see that what we were engulfed in was far greater than what we thought. While we thought Harry was simply slaying dragons, he was actually slaying governments and bringing forth a new order.

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