Paper 2 - Parallels Between the Wizarding World and Our Own: Bullying and Conflict PDF

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Parallels Between the Wizarding World and Our Own: Bullying and Conflict...

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Kennedy Smith CHL 137 M/W 11:00-12:15 Paper 2: Prompt 2 Potter Parallels Between the Wizarding World and Our Own: Bullying and Conflict J.K. Rowling has been laying the same formula out for some time, but in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban she really switches up her style, the mood, and plot twists to make a more interesting and exciting novel. Something fascinating in this book, specifically, is the overwhelming amount of parallelism, making the book more relatable to the target audience, as well as everyone else! Everyone has had that teacher or professor that won’t give them a break or is entirely too harsh. Everyone has had a conflict with a friend. J.K. Rowling takes these pieces that we see in our own world of peer to peer bullying and conflict and professor to student bullying and conflict and expands and exaggerates them wonderfully in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Bullying is a large theme all throughout the Harry Potter series, and especially in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, that oftentimes gets overlooked, even though it is so prevalent in our culture. Beach and Willner discuss in their article that Rowling is so great at drawing readers into the books by connecting aspects of the worlds in which they live with a world that transcends their own reality (103). What’s great about Harry Potter is that it can give an escape for those suffering from such treatment. This is the first novel in the series that we really get exposed to this negative side of Hogwarts. There are multiple different sources of bullying with multiple different reasons why they bully. First there is Malfoy, who is clearly jealous of Harry Potter and bitter that Harry didn’t shake his hand on the first day of school. We

have the Dursley’s that are just wound up a bit too tight and have this north star of beating Harry down so he doesn’t “act out” and breathe incorrectly. However, more importantly in this book, there is also Snape who has a few dimensions to his bullying purpose, and there is Ron, the angsty new teenager that has some rat issues. The reader is first exposed to Snape’s past in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, more specifically in Chapter Fourteen, “Snape’s Grudge.” There is a lot that goes behind Snape’s bullying. At the surface, one could assume that Snape’s bullying is entirely ran by jealousy. Harry Potter is the chosen one, Snape gets on him for it. Harry Potter isn’t a Slytherin, Snape gets on him for it. Dumbledore loves Harry Potter, Snape gets on him for it. Snape could be seen as trying to balance the favoritism that Harry may or may not have been getting from others. Or Snape could just be that teacher we all had in middle school that seemed to hate us for no good reason, which is a great way Rowling connects us to this world. We learn in Chapter Fourteen, “Snape’s Grudge”, that the other dimension to this bout of bullying from Snape is settling a score. This is the first time that Harry’s perfect vision of his parents starts to get questioned. Snape was bullied relentlessly by James Potter’s gang, for what we can assume at this point, no reason. Years later, when Snape sees Harry, Snape realizes the boy looks just like his father, Snape’s tormentor, Snape cannot help but be mean to Harry because of these similarities, possibly in an unconscious attempt to get back at James. “‘I would hate for you to run away with a false idea of your father, Potter,’ he said, a terrible grin twisting his face. ‘Have you been imagining some act of glorious heroism? Then let me correct you - your saintly father and his friends played a highly amusing joke on me that would have resulted in my death if your father hadn’t gotten cold feet at the last moment. There was nothing brave about

what he did. He was saving his own skin as much as mine. Had their joke succeeded, he would have been expelled from Hogwarts’” (Rowling 285) In this moment, we learn of the bullying done to Snape and we can see Harry’s image of his father get roughed up. This sets a lot of plot and room for growth for the professor student relationship between Harry Potter and Professor Snape in later books that Rowling utilizes. Professor to student conflict and bullying isn’t the only source in this novel, or chapter for that matter. In Chapter Fourteen, “Snape’s Grudge”, we see a lot of the bullying that takes place, both from teacher to student and peer to peer. Ron and Hermione deal with conflict throughout the entire novel, however in “Snape’s Grudge” there is a moment where Ron is no longer Hermione’s friend that is dealing with conflict, but is genuinely mean and an actual bully. After Hermione expresses some concern for Harry and tries to talk him out of another bad idea, Ron blatantly ignores her existence “‘Can you hear someone talking, Harry?’ growled Ron, not looking at Hermione” (Rowling 275). This is just one example out of many where Ron uses a quip to dig at Hermione, even though she is just trying to help, granted in a way that is not so effective. The students in their third year are the prime age to experience bullying, much like children in our own world across the globe. J.K. Rowling is great at taking problems that people are facing, children or adults, and giving them a platform where they can be interpreted, discussed, and even advised. According to Beach and Willner some young readers choose to take particular lessons from the books. Literacy-related learning does take place with readers that are impressed with Rowling’s work. Children focus on moral and ethical considerations inherent in the Harry Potter series (106). If children are taking what Rowling is writing so close to their morals and ethics, then it is

important that every word is intentional and the way that Ron and Hermione’s conflict wraps up in this novel is one to take note of. Even though Snape and Harry don’t conclude in this novel, it is still wonderfully written for the readers to take pieces and apply it to their own lives to hopefully fix and cope with what’s going on in the world around them.

Works Cited Beach, Sara Ann, and Elizabeth Harden Willner. “The Power of Harry: The Impact of J. K. ! Rowling's Harry Potter Books on Young Readers.” World Literature Today, vol. 76, no. 1, ! 2002, pp. 102–106. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.emich.edu/stable/40157015.

Rowling, J K, and Mary GrandPré. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. New York: Arthur ! A. Levine Books, 1999. Print....