Chapter 17: Childhood Rebellion

Today we started talking about The Order of the Phoenix. But we also had the special treat of hearing most of the class sing a Sorting Hat song! Dr. Poe said that anyone who would sing would be given extra credit. (The only reason I didn't sing was because I wanted to be sure that you all were able to see it happen!) So enjoy the video and the post!

- V.B.

Order of the Phoenix

Middle Adolescences

•    During this time of childhood, the task is gaining independence. In our culture, driving a car is a large rite of passage. “My brother and sister were arrested before they were 20, whereas I was a prison chapelen. There was a difference.” There is always some sort of rebellion involved. Dr. Poe’s rebellion was to become a Republican at the age of 15 (at the time, this was unheard of in the South).
•    Harry’s parents are dead, so how does he gain independence? Harry is angry because he is cut off from the Order. He thinks they think he can’t handle information, but he has never been told this. He is paranoid.
•    His friends haven’t spoken to him all summer, he thinks it is because he is being punished.
•    Dumbledore is the only person that Harry can rebel against. During this age, children are wanting their parent’s love, but keeping them at arm’s length at the same time. This is because the relationship between a parent and child must change into something different, it must become an adult-to-adult relationship.
•    Harry feels neglected by Dumbledore, but can’t lash out at him, so Harry takes out all of his anger out on his friends.

Emotions

• Even though females are typically more emotional than males, Harry is the emotional one in this story and Hermione isn’t. Men and women both have strong emotions, but each gender deals with them differently. Why do humans have emotions? Because God has emotions and we are created in his image.

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

• Harry in this book is very angry. All the time. 
• One of my classmates said that when he read this book as a kid, he was very angry too. It wasn’t because of reading the books that they were angry, it's because some of the kids reading this book were already going through similar problems as Harry. 

The Doctrine of Sin

• Rowling is constantly pointing out that there are things wrong with everyone. Even the “nice” people. It’s one thing to say that Voldemort or the Malfoy do things wrong, but she shows that Harry, Dumbledore, and the others mess up to.

Reconciliation

• Rowling is working with reconciliation in this book. Harry is stubbornly hard headed about not wanting to open up to his friends after he feels hurt. This is most obvious against Dumbledore in this book, but you also see this between Harry and Ron in Goblet of Fire and you see it ALL the time between Ron and Hermione.
• Harry does finally realize his faults and repairs his friendships.
• How do you raise children? Rowling shows that this period of growing up is hard, but also that what happens before you are 11 years old is important as well. 

Umbridge

• The author of a work can often be judged by the characters that they write. They don’t have to be a “good” character in order to be a well written character. Umbridge is a wonderful character because she is so horrid. Umbridge is a manager not only in the government, but in the educational system as well.
• Rowling makes it clear that governmental involvement in education and governmental involvement in the press (Daily Prophet) is a bad thing. The Prophet doesn’t print headlines about Harry being mad, they work it into just normal articles. And this is much like C. S. Lewis saying that Christians should just write more from there point of view. This is the corrupted version of Lewis' apologetics. The Prophet does this to undermine Harry and Dumbledore.
• When Sirius Black was on the lose, the Ministry goes out of there way to protect Harry, but now that there are ten death eaters at large they are discrediting him and persecuting him.

Hermione’s independence

• Hermione is the one who comes up with the idea of Dumbledore’s Army. This is very much an outright rebellion on her part.  “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

Percy Wesley

• Percy sacrifices everything to be part of the “inner ring.” Legalism is not a equivalent to righteousness. In this story, the legalist is a “bad guy.”

Soon we will start talking about the films as well. We will explore the different mediums and the limits that they both have.