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Symbolism in Harry Potter
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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.
The novel showed a pivotal point prior to the Civil War and how these issues ultimately led to the fueling of quarrel between Americans. While such institutions of slavery no longer exist in the United States, the message resonates with the struggles many groups ostracized today who continue to face prejudice from those in higher
Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in 1852. This anti-slavery book was the most popular book of the 19th century, and the 2nd most sold book in the century, following only the Bible. It was said that this novel “led to the civil war”, or “the straw that broke the camel’s back”. After one year, 300,000 copies were sold in the U.S., and over 1 million were sold in Britain.
Mightier than the Sword: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Battle for America is written by David S. Reynolds. Reynolds is a Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. In this book, the author analyzes and discusses the effect of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in society. American history has been influenced through different works. However, as Reynolds claims, Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped shape the world’s public opinion about slavery and religion in more than one way. Therefore, no book could have more powerfully molded American history than Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, for centuries to come will be seen as a huge contributing factor to the occurrence of the U.S. Civil War when it happened. As people’s views change about things over long periods of time, what people believe about the moral rightness of the institution called slavery may also change. It is possible that slavery could one day be counted by the majority as proper. Uncle Tom’s Cabin could find itself on center stage in importance again in a debate over slavery. Until then, it is safe to say that its impact on society was massive in its time and will now be studied as a great contribution to our history.
In the year 1852, nine short years before the civil war began in 1861, Harriet Stowe published arguably the most influential, groundbreaking, and controversial books in American history, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The novel drew widespread criticism for the depiction of African Americans and slaves in a time when the United States of America was teetering on civil unrest due to the strength of the opposing views between the North and the South. The rapid expansion and growth the United States throughout the 19th century had led to an increase in labor demands, and slavery was not only viable but also essential to the economic prosperity of the southern states. The argument over slavery was wrestled with for the entire history of the young nation, and the late mid-1800’s brought the country to a crossroads. The publishing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin stirred the emotions of the country over whether or not African Americans are equal, if they should be free, and what should be done about slavery.
Potter also criticizes how the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe served as propaganda in the Northern states for ending slavery. Southerners used counteractive measurement and probably saw the novel by Stowe as conflicting to their intentions. Cultural incentives such as this one placed a deep impact on the lives of people defending slavery, and used violence and direct approach to implement their ideas out into society. Fire-Eaters were also useful because just like removing Stowe’s literature from the public eye, the opinion of the Southern population starts to strongly favor pro-slavery
In the article “Doubling, Transfiguring, and Haunting: The Art of Adapting Harry Potter for Film” by Michael K Johnson the focus is on the third Harry Potter Movie, Prisoner of Azkaban. The question posed throughout the article is how do adaptions from books to film allow us to move beyond our one way of viewing and understanding the story? Johnson answers this question through discussing the use of time throughout the Harry Potter book and the different filming techniques used to create time changing in the film and comparing the film to the the movie The 400 Blows.
Ever since J.K. Rowling first introduced Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in 1997, children and adults have read and loved the series. It has gained such popularity that all of the books have been made into major motion pictures, and a Harry Potter attraction has been opened in Universal Studios, Florida. Though the readers love Rowling’s intricate and exciting story lines, many controversies have arisen from these stories, not only in the United States, but also in various countries around the world. Perhaps the biggest controversy is the religious implications perceived by some critics. Although these critics believe that the series promotes paganism and encourages evil actions, these theories should not be taken so seriously.
The portrayal of female characters in British literature has most often reflected the larger perception of women by society during the time of a work’s publication. In this regard, the immensely popular Harry Potter series written by author J.K. Rowling is certainly no exception. The circumstances for women in late 20th century Britain have improved and in many ways are nearing equality with men, yet a notable upper barrier to success still remains. Rowling captures this gender dynamic throughout the Harry Potter series by including a diverse cast of resilient female characters who are not allowed to take on the same leadership roles dominated by the men at Hogwarts, at the Ministry of Magic, in quidditch, and during the Triwizard tournament. The novels also center on an important theme of motherly love that Rowling uses to explore the sacrifices women must make in order to raise their children well. Such issues have been present in British literature for well over a century, with each generation seeing steps toward equality, both for the fictitious characters and the women of a given time period. The Harry Potter series, therefore, constitutes a reflection of female status in modern Britain that has advanced, but remains perpetually flawed.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, has had a tremendous impact on American culture, both then and now. It is still considered a controversial novel, and many secondary schools have banned it from their libraries. What makes it such a controversial novel? One reason would have been that the novel is full of melodrama, and many people considered it a caricature of the truth. Others said that she did not show the horror of slavery enough, that she showed the softer side of it throughout most of her novel. Regardless of the varying opinions of its readers, it is obvious that its impact was large.
One of the most difficult relationships for Potter to navigate is his relationship with his foster family, The Dursleys. Even though Petunia Dursley is Potter’s aunt, she and the rest of her family still treat him in an extremely poor manner. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Potter is described as being forced to live in a cupboard that is filled with spiders (Rowling, 1999) and it is clear that his wellbeing is not a priority to the Dursleys. This leaves him in a state where he is neglected and does not receive the attention that he deserves. The neglect that Potter faces is important to understand because the relationship between a child and their caregiver is vital in a child’s development. Potter’s negative relationship with his adoptive family has also affe...
Charles Dudley Warner in The Story of Uncle Tom 's Cabin, refers to the question that many modern day critics and scholars ask about the novel’s tremendous success, “Was this only an "event," the advent of a new force in politics; was the book merely an abolition pamphlet, or was it a novel, one of the few great masterpieces of fiction that the world has produced” (311)? Looking back we can see that Uncle Tom’s Cabin wasn’t simply an “event” or political pamphlet, but a full-scale and highly successful literary attack on the evils of slavery that trumped even the power and influence of the politicians and government of the time. It is well-known that Abraham Lincoln even greeted Stowe in 1862 as ‘the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war’, referring to the Civil War, which ended the institution of slavery in the United States. But, Stowe did not write her novel simply for political reasons. As Tompkins explains, Stowe wrote her novel as a tool to turn the world from the rule of force to the rule of “Christian love”, and to bring about the “institution of the kingdom of heaven on earth” (141). This is what the everyday American of Stowe’s time could connect with, instead of just a political plea, but is also what causes
One of the most read series in all literature is Harry Potter. The seven-book succession has sold over 400 million copies and has been translated into over sixty languages. What is it that makes this series so wildly famous? What is it about the boy who lived that makes frenzied readers flock to their local bookstore at midnight on the day of the release to buy the latest installment? How is a story set in a world that doesn’t exist about wizards, witches, magic, and mystical creatures so popular? The series has been able to earn its spot on the New York Times Bestseller list and has granted author J.K. Rowling multiple awards because it is relatable. It is not the setting or the events in the plot of the story that we relate to. We relate to what Harry, his friends, mentors, teachers, caretakers, and even enemies feel. Harry is in a lot of ways exactly like us. He represents some of the good characteristics that all of us have as well as the bad. The series as a whole, is about one thing that is stressed over and over again in the novels, love. The Harry Potter series is one of the most read sequences of novels because the central theme is love and self-sacrifice, and readers are looking for a novel that shows them just that.
People in the medieval era were quite superstitious. They believed in fictional characters such as witches and wizards. ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ is a novel based on the existence of witches and wizards in secret communities. The medieval period is well known for the hierarchy of society. The society consisted of landlords and their servants. This medieval element was brought into the story in the form of house elves.
One of the most distinguishing characteristics of children's films is the centrality of the moral. Although Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone teaches children many lessons, but the main one is that good will always conquer evil. Right from the beginning of the film, audiences are shown how poorly Harry gets treated ...