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. 

Chapter 16: Harry Potter and Sex (or the lack thereof)

Now that the title got your attention... 
I'd like to give a big thanks to Alice of Rabbiton for taking the notes that make this post possible. I will also point out that all phrases in quotation marks are quotes from Dr. Poe unless otherwise noted. I will also take this opportunity to remind you that all information found on this blog is a faithful representation of what is discussed in class and may not necessarily reflect the views held by me, my classmates, or Union University as a whole. 


That being said, I approve of (although I may not always agree with) everything that I allow to be placed on this blog. I hope that you enjoy today's post on Love, Prejudices, and the Morality of the Unforgivable Curses.


-V. B.


A Continued Discussion of Eros

•    As Rowling follows these children as they go through adolescence, she is faced with the question of when to introduce certain experiences. In the midst of all that’s going on, when do you introduce eros?
•    The body is changing during this time period, so how do you introduce these new emotions? Hormones start exploding, acne kicks in, your body begins to change shape, and life just seems awkward all of the sudden. 
•    Sexual experimentation, in today’s society, is being pushed on much younger age groups. Since the counter-culture of the 1960's, sexual norms have basically been eradicated in American culture. Our society sees no sexual norms or boundaries; no right or wrong, there’s just what you do. "Intercourse, in our culture, is just as normal as a handshake between strangers," according to Dr. Poe. The media also gives us continuous exposure about sex.

So How Does Rowling Combat This Horrible Eradication of Morals?

•    One of the subtle things she does is to wait until around age fifteen to talk about dating. She’s reestablishing what is normal, and she’s allowing them to grow up at the pace that is normal and acceptable; your emotions, your intellect, and your body is all in sequence. "They’re not talking about bedding girls; they’re talking about the horror of asking a girl on a date." This is a very subtle to establish what is normal.
•    When you talk about a worldview, one of the core beliefs is sexual morals. This is what Rowling is touching on by reaffirming a healthier understanding of growing up and getting things in the proper sequence. She doesn’t make a big deal out of it. It’s just part of the story and how the characters mature in all those different dimensions.
•    Hermione criticizes Ron’s “emotional range of a teaspoon” when he can’t empathize with Cho. Rowling is talking about the disparity between males and females for about a ten year period; they’re maturing at different speeds. She’s tracing that, and we see how Hermione, being more mature than Ron, has to wait for his affections and emotions to catch up with hers.
•    She’s doing all this to create a new set of norms, but she’s only one voice out of many. There are millions of stories that have changed the behavior patterns of society in terms of what was acceptable, what is normal, and what is expected. If you don’t behave the way culture expects, you are "abnormal." You are like Dobby, the social deviant who doesn’t think or behave the way a house elf should.
•    Christians in all cultures, at all times, are at some level social deviants. We are different from the mainstream of the culture (or at least one would hope so) and we had a profound effect on the broad culture for decades. But the West is losing its Christian foundation. Life, liberty, and happiness are products of a Christian worldview.
•    Rowling doesn’t discuss it in terms of human behavior or lecture about what nice people do, but in terms of normal, everyday behavior. The narrative itself has an influence on the reader, leading them to agree with what she likes and disagree with what she dislikes. Rowling doesn’t lecture about what is right and wrong, she just builds her view of norms right into the story! By just presenting things as the normal way of doing things, the reader is just brought along with the idea that this is just the way things are.

Dr. Poe stated that he would be interested to see if these books have changed the way the world views things as acceptable. The pulpit of the ‘60s was the movie theater, they pushed all the envelope and created norms. So how have these books and films made any cultural change in the generation of "Millennials" that have been so observed in the series.  


Pride & Prejudices 

•    This book really highlights the idea of prejudice in a way that we haven’t seen quite as much. It comes to a head with attitudes towards things like half-breeds. Rowling touches on the acceptance of who you are and your own identity, and a lot of people deny their true selves. There are prejudices against half-giants, but she writes the story to where we dislike the ones who dislike the half-giants.
•    Hermione talks about those who are prejudice about werewolves. She’s not giving out simple answers to things, and there are just some behaviors that you just don’t accept. More obvious with Fenrir than Lupin, there are extreme behaviors that won’t be tolerated (killing children).
•    She also touches on the attitudes towards house elves and centaurs, even against muggles. The strangeness of the prejudices is further explored with goblins, wand carriers, and those who are not pure-bloods.
•    This can become a methodology, working when Ron and Harry are discussing the dates for the Yule Bale. They’re now evaluating the appearance of girls. These evaluations that are going back and forth are very strange. Things like that are part of finding your place in Harry Potter and putting prejudice in its place.
•    Jesus was always multicultural, but most cultures work at reinforcing the prejudices rather than tearing them down. In Galatians 3:28, Jesus tells us, "There are neither Jews nor Greeks, slaves nor free people, males nor females. You are all the same in Christ Jesus."            

 New Types of Magic In The Goblet of Fire

•    The Aging Line around the goblet itself is very similar to getting an I.D. card and the right of passage that it gives you (going to certain movies, buying beer, etc).
•     Apparating and the desire to do so all the time when you have your license is like driving.
•     Veritaserum, the strongest truth potion, would be like sodium pentathol.
• Rowling is often dancing between magic and science, giving it a clever twist to make it make-believe when, in actuality, it does exist in reality.
• Harry lies a lot but has some very valuable secrets, so he’s incredibly worried Snape would give him the truth serum.
•    Rita Skeeter and the paparazzi are being terribly worrisome.
•    The Goblet of Fire is the Sorting Hat carried to the next level. It is sorting the occupants into the worthiest individuals from each school. It’s like a computer, and it does get "hacked" by Barty Crouch Jr.
•    Professor Moody (aka Barty Jr.) transfigures Malfoy into a ferret, and he transforms Barty Sr. into a bone and buried him.

The Unforgivable Curses

Barty Jr. demonstrates the three unforgiveable curses to us for the first time.

• Imperius Curse
•    You can control somebody.
•      Learn to manipulate people so that they do what you want them to do.
•    We’ve had it used on us numerous times, and we pick up the skill if we’re not careful. You may have relatives that are really good at the Imperius Curse, only we typically call it a "Guilt-trip." It gives you total control over someone based on what you say. You've heard them before,  “You do want you want.” or “Don’t mind me, I’m used to being alone.”

• Cruciatus Curse
•    "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me" is the countercurse that we were all taught as kids, but it never seemed to work...
•    You can torture someone with unbearable pain.
•    James, brother of Jesus, wrote on this subject of the power of words to cause unbearable pain. The tongue is an incredibly powerful instrument for good and for evil. "With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be." James 3:9-10

• Killing Curse
•    Jesus warned us of this in the Sermon on the Mount. Thou shall not kill.
•    You don’t have to use your hands; it starts with the intentions of the heart. Murder starts with the intentions of the heart.
•    Harry couldn’t use the Cruciatus Curse because he didn’t mean it in his heart.
•    Umbridge regularly uses the unforgiveable curses for “the greater good”.
•    Kingsley Shacklebolt uses the Imperius Curse on Cho’s friend when Dumbledore’s Army has been caught by Umbridge’s interrogations.
•    McGonagall uses one against Bellatrix in the Deathly Hallows.
•    Harry never uses the killing curse, and he even warns Voldemort not to use it.
•    Molly Weasley never utters the curse out loud, but we know she’s used it against Bellatrix.

What Are the Ethics Behind The Unforgivable Curses?

•    Our heroes later use the unforgiveable curses. “Unforgivable” isn’t a legal term, it’s invocative of the something like the Last Judgment. Is it right for the heroes to use them? Some things are forbidden by the state, culture, authority figures, or God. 
•    Is it the curse that’s the problem or is it the killing of people that’s the problem?
•    Dr. Poe hopes to continue this discussion at a later time and will perhaps to have one of our professors of ethics discuss this with us!

Parting Thoughts...

•    The idea of celebrity is introduced with Victor Krum. To what extent is Rowling’s celebrity featured in to the way she writes those passages? Does she put herself into the book? She does have insight into the experience of fame that other authors don’t know about. Rowling was surprised at her fame, and in that sense, she’s musch like Harry. She’s clearly making the case for what’s important, and in the end, friendship is more important than fame.
•    A death eater (Crouch as Moody) tells Harry that he and Hermione would make good aurors, which is very ironic.
•    Voldemort is already planning to kill Snape, and Harry overhears this in the graveyard. With the whole resurrection/murder/graveyard sequence, she’s now making it a horror story. It also goes back to the druid type of ritual with blood and ghastly magic; this ceremony and the resurrection of Voldemort, is the essence of evil.

Chapter 15: Harry Potter and Hunger Games

We've done it! We've topped 1,000 views! Big thanks to everyone for continuing to read the blog and please continue sharing it with your friends like Miss "Zestee" Everman did.

So what do we do when we top 1,000 page views? We celebrate by talking about what Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and The Hunger Games have in common! The "girl on fire" and "the boy that lived". 

Happy reading! And may the odds be ever in your favor!

- V. B.

The Goblet of Fire

After the first two books, Rowling (ironically) takes a much harsher view of the press in her books.

In this book, Easter is celebrated, and at Christmas, one of the suits of armor is singing “O Come All Ye Faithful”.

More Eros

In this book, the characters are in middle adolescence. Hormones are running high and so is eros. Harry likes Cho, and Cedric does too. He’s cooler than Harry and can tell Cho how he feels. Ron is also dealing with it; he’s upset that Hermione’s gone to the ball with his former hero, Victor Krum. He’s very jealous, which means that he likes Hermione, but he doesn’t do anything about it. Hermione is frustrated with Ron because she’s waiting on Ron to grow up. Passion is a very powerful force, and it can deceive and confuse you.

On this subject Dr. Poe said something along the lines of, “Being kissed by a dementor is not half as bad as not being kissed at all!”

Resurrection and Death

Voldemort’s resurrection is nothing like the resurrection of Harry and especially the resurrection Christ. The power of love is much more powerful than any dark power.  A clear contrast is made between the good news of grace, the gift of life, and the sacrifice of Christ compared to the ghastly, self-centeredness of Voldermort’s perpetuation. The United States has an overwhelming fear of death. Rowling wants this contrast to have an impression on the reader, so that their opinion is developed. But rather than lecturing about the fact that death need not be feared, she weaves it right into the story. When you have to have a lecture to explain it, that’s not much of a story.

When Cedric Diggory, Harry’s parents, and Voldemort’s victims appear as the wands connect, this reflects the cloud of witnesses and communion of saints in Scripture.

Harry Potter and the Hunger Games?

Rowling is attacking some of the fundamental, materialistic assumptions running rampant through our culture. The theory of natural selection and materialistic evolution that says that my genes are competing with your genes, and my genes want the advantage; I’m competing against you. I want the odds in my favor. The very idea of sacrifice and sharing has no place in the kind of universe that is materialistic. It goes against the theory. The materialistic understanding of what’s going on is that people will gang up on others, get rid of them, and then turn on each other. That’s not what’s going on with Harry, and that’s not what’s going on with Cedric. Rowling is supporting a supernatural value system in which people have worth and value and that human life is worth more than personal achievement. 

The gospel in Goblet of Fire is very evident in the Triwizard Tournament. It is a environment of natural selection. A competition between people, against each other. This is the same sort of theme that Suzanne Collins uses in the Hunger Games. People are fighting each other. There is no room for love in this competition. But just like Katniss refuses to kill Peeta, Harry supersedes the system and tells Cedric about the dragons, saves Fleur’s sister, and takes the Wizard Cup WITH Cedric rather than blasting him out of the way.

"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:5-11) This also comes into play when Sirius tells Ron to treat his inferiors with the same respect as he treats his equals. This is all packed into the idea of what should my attitude be to other people? Our value system, as Christians, is based off of our actions toward other people.

It also plays into the fact that everyone is afraid to say Voldemort's name. Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself. But God has a name that is above all others, therefore, we need not fear anything. 

Multi-Cultural Wizards

or

Voldemort and Hitler

It never occurred to Harry that there are wizards throughout the rest of the world and that there might be other schools in other places. We see Harry’s coming of age throughout the series because he’s incredibly naïve. God’s kingdom is incredibly diverse and includes all sorts of people with different tongues and cultures. Christianity is very multicultural, which you don’t find in any other culture in the world. There isn’t very much mixing of ethnicities in other places. You don’t find mixing (religions, tribes, etc) in the Middle East. The genocide in Central Africa was an incredibly unnerving example of this. 

Multiculturalism is not natural to human nature. Multiculturalism and the acceptance of people who are different is not natural; naturally, we are suspicious of those who are different from us, and to accept them we have to have some sort of basis to connect with those different people. Our connection is the Creator God, but without God, we have no basis to sustain it. In Europe right now, they’re going to outlaw different kinds of behavior of Muslim people. This has to do with fear of the outsider in a country that is no longer Christian. So many of the values that Western liberalism, such as the tradition of the free spirit, takes for granted has to be rooted in something. If it’s just a material world, then Hitler can kill as many Jews as he wants to by playing on human fear of those who are different. If there’s no higher authority or value he’s violating, there is no right or wrong. "There’s only power and those too weak to use it." Later in the books, she fights the “higher/greater good” mentality of Umbridge. She’s not writing theology, but she is creating a context in which values don’t work unless they come from something greater than ourselves.

House Elves

Rowling raises difficult questions and points out flaws, but doesn’t give any easy answers. Hermione defends the house elves, and yet Dumbledore keeps more of them than any other person in the world. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he talks about the Holy Spirit and freedom because Christ has set you free. You don’t find the subject of freedom in any other document in any other religion.The Bible is one of the only books of the time to talk about “freedom,” because "freedom" was a foreign concept at the time.

Dobby is no longer a slave, and much like Harry lays down his life for his friends. It takes a long time to become the norm, permeate the culture, and go through the dough. Dobby is a revolutionary. What Dobby does to rescue those in captivity are the same things Harry does to save people. 

House elves aren’t human, but they are a different form of life. So what ethical issues does that raise?·      Dobby is not a human, but house elves are not animals, and there’s this debate going on in the wizarding community of where they fall. When Ron wants to go save the house elves from Voldemort, this is when the love between Ron and Hermione blooms fully. Dumbledore also said that Sirius never appreciated that house elves had feelings like people. Rowling is relying on a kind of fiction that Tolkien and Lewis brought forward. C. S. Lewis and Tolkien have non-human races in their works as well. It’s a convenient way to ponder about how you think about other people. 
Angels and demons aren’t human, but they are still a life form. Humans are LOWER than angels even! Satan’s problem with the human race is that we’re made lower than the angels, yet Christ has crowned us with glory and stepped into the world and become one of us! That’s why he tries to knock Jesus off while He’s in that form. Satan figures that when God turns himself into a person, he can take over because Jesus is at his weakest. Jesus defeats him easily.

Cornelius Fudge and Self-Awareness

Fudge doesn’t want to acknowledge that Voldemort has come back (or even could come back). Self-awareness is one of our biggest problems in today’s society. Many parables are about people who don’t want to deal with their own problems and situations. When the prodigal son was finally down and out and eating with the pigs, he came face to face with himself and saw himself as he really was. Fudge, like a lot of politicians, believed his own propaganda, which is deadly. You must know yourself; otherwise you can’t have a confession. Though we have Harry, constantly getting into trouble, he’s also constantly confessing and coming face to face with himself. When Harry and Ron weren’t speaking, both of them needed to grow up, see themselves, find out what the problem was, confess it, and get rid of it so that they can move on. Fudge will never confess his shortcomings, but Harry is coming face to face with his failures.

Harry and Sin

Rowling slips the word “sin” when Harry looks in the pensive. When Harry stumbles upon the pensieve, Dumbledore tells him "it’s not a sin to be curious." The very idea of sin is a powerful idea that you don’t find in every culture. In post-WWII Japan, you find no other culture dealing with their god resigning. The emperor of Japan was god, the same way pharaoh was god, and it’s the same kind of religion that Moses faced in Egypt. Japan’s emperor was the son of the moon goddess, and it was in his name the Japanese did everything that was done. McArthur said the emperor could remain on his throne, but he must resign as god. If the emperor is not god, who is? It was a huge cultural crisis, and the Western world sent missionaries to Japan. From a very young age, we’ve always heard the basic story of the gospel and have all this background. If you don’t know the story and someone tells you “God died for your sins and you can go to Heaven when you die,” yet your culture has no concept of sin or heaven because they teach that you don’t die but are reincarnated until you become enlightened and cease to exist. That’s hard to take in. If you don’t know the gospel story, it doesn’t make any sense. Our culture is becoming like the Japanese culture, in which people no longer know the story, who Jesus is, or how it makes sense. It’s almost lost. Western culture had a firm background built on the ideas of sin, God, and heaven, but we are losing that foundation.

Chapter 14: Dementors, Depression, and Divination

After Spring Break was over, Dr. Poe returned to class without a word about what he had been up to or where he had gone. But he did show us his collection of "dragon eggs" and informed us that he had to battle a banshee in order to get the Horntail egg. He did point out that since breeding dragons is still illegal in these areas, he will be making no attempts to do any breeding, but the collection was nonetheless impressive. 

- V. B.

Prisoner of Azkaban

Dementors

We meet a lot of new creatures in this book. The worst creature is a dementor, a creature that sucks all the joy out of you. John Bunyan writes about a similar thing in Pilgrim’s Progress, only his creature is the Giant Despair who traps Christian in the Castle of Doubt.

Depression is a horrible thing. We all go through it, some more and some less, but we all deal with depression and doubt at some point in our lives.

To get rid of a dementor you just use the Patronus Charm. This ties Harry with his father (same patronus animal) but he also has to think of the most joyous memory in his life. “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.” (Philipians 4:8) “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) We will all be visited by dementors in life, so we must remember that “…the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4b)

New Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher

Professor Lupin is a werewolf. He wasn’t born that way, but rather he was infected and has to deal with now. It is the way that Lupin deals with his condition that makes him different.

He is the first Dark Arts teacher that actually knows what he is talking about. He introduces the class to a boggart, a creature that takes the form of your worst fear. Lupin teaches them to overcome their greatest fears. Lupin tells Harry that because he is afraid of dementors, Harry really just fears Fear itself. “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

To get rid of dementors (depression) you think of something happy, and to get rid of fear, you laugh at it. Lupin also shows us that chocolate is a wonderful way to get rid of depression and when Dr. Poe pointed this out all the girls in class agreed heartily.

Divination

We are introduced to divination in this book. This falls into the category of magic that the Bible, McGonagall, and Dumbledore condemn. There is also an astronomy tower at Hogwarts, and this is important because it is not an astrology tower. Astrology has its roots in medieval synthesis of theology, Platonic philosophy, and science, but over the centuries it lost its science and was taken over by the occult.

Hippogriffs and Time Travel

Not known to appear before the Harry Potter series. Spawned from a griffin and a horse. Griffins originate as far back as Babylonian times.

To save Sirius Black and Buckbeak, Hermione and Harry must time travel. Time travel is a big part of the science fiction genre. Rowling sets up the time turner from the very beginning of the book.

What is time? How can time change? Eternity is outside of time and space. When God created space, time was made. But God is outside of time. He is the time ender, and time beginner.

Did Dumbledore know that Sirius is innocent? We know that Dumbledore talks to Sirius and that he can read minds, and Jesus could read minds too.

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.