Chapter 13: Dr. Poe Disappears! (but class goes on)

I am not a superstitious person in anyway, but it is interesting that on the 13th class day that Dr. Poe seemingly disapparated without a trace. We entered the classroom and were greeted by a young woman whom none of us had before seen within the vicinity. We were not told where Dr. Poe was, but we all knew that he must have been called away on a top secret wizarding mission of some sort or other. 

In the meantime, we were to be instructed by the young woman whose name turned out to be Erin Boswell. So after putting away our quills from the quiz that we took at the beginning of class, Mrs. Boswell informed us that she too had been a student of Dr. Poe's not all that long ago and now had joined the Ministry of Education by continuing to serve at the school that she had grown to love so much. She had been chosen to speak to us in Dr. Poe's absence by the doctor himself because she was indeed an avid fan of the Harry Potter books and had written many rolls of parchment on the subject. In fact, her thesis had been on the topic of comparing Harry Potter with other children's literature. She then set out to speak with us on the topics on which she had written and to promote conversation.

Admittedly, our time with Mrs. Boswell was indeed short and unfortunately the formate of our conversations were not very conducive to note taking, but nonetheless, I shall set down here what valuable information I could garner for your enlightenment.

- V. B.

Children’s literature often has more moral issues because they are boiling down truth.

The Issue of Choice

What does Harry choose to do? His first big choice is that he does not want to be put in Slytherine.

He also tells Malfoy that he can chose his own friends.

He also makes choices to tell the truth even when Umbridge punishes him for telling the truth.

Right and Wrong

Harry and Voldemort are easily the embodiment of right and wrong, but Harry has to choose between doing what right or doing what is wrong (even if doing the right thing doesn’t really pay off as quickly).

“If you are a good guy in a story, you shouldn’t go around killing other children!” - Mrs. Boswell

He chooses to use the Marauder's Map even when it is a bad idea.

Sacrifice

Parallels Narnia and Jesus. Both with Lily Potter’s sacrifice, and Harry’s death and resurrection. Harry does not know that he will ever come back from the dead, and yet he is still willing to lay down his life.

Snape sacrifices himself every single day in order to protect Harry.

Ron sacrifices himself in the chess game.

Death

Our society is trying to find ways to stop death, but then Rowling shows that death is not something that needs to be feared the way our culture portrays it. It also introduces the theme of death to children at a young age and confronts it head on.