Character, Choice, and Harry Potter

ALMOST AS OVERWHELMING AS THE HYPE surrounding the Harry Potter books (and now movies and DVDs) has been the heat generated in some Christian circles, evangelical, fundamentalist, and sometimes Catholic. Despite the impressive amount of attention given the books, however, the discussion tends to focus only on a few select themes. Critics of the book generally claim that the series is leading children to explore the occult by glamorizing witchcraft. Some critics will also mention a disdain for rules on the part of Harry and his friends, but such a train of thought is rarely substantial. ¹ Rather, how one portrays magic or the occult has lapped up much of the ink. That Harry Potter might lead a child to the occult is possible, but we find it highly improbable, for the simple reason that the only kind of magic in the book that has real-life occult parallels is fortune-telling, which is pretty much dismissed (more on this later). Some of the more sophisticated Christian critics dissect the portrayal of magic and the notion of subcreation in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, then compare J. K. Rowling to them. While such a discussion can be useful and informative, those who pursue this line of conversation often seem to be bringing up Harry Potter only to talk about Narnia and Middle Earth. Such a piece is Steven Greydanus's otherwise interesting essay "Harry Potter vs. Gandalf." ² While making many noteworthy observations about the portrayal of magic in children's literature, and ultimately defending Rowling from her reputation as "corrupter of youth," Greydanus nevertheless gives the impression that he hasn't really read the books except to analyze her use of magic. Indeed, such critics seem to us to have missed the point about the books. Just as M. Night Shyamalan's movie The Sixth Sense was not really about ghosts, but instead about parenting, Harry Potter is not really about magic, but about character.

Character is an appropriate word since in Greek it originally denoted an instrument for marking or the external mark itself, like a brand. Harry's lightning-shaped scar is such a literal character, the sign not only of the dark forces which have tried to kill him since birth, but of his survival and the reason for that survival. That reason is the love of his parents, in particular his mother, which has protected him, shaped him, and continues to shape him. Character is, more important, the mark that is left on the world by a person's chosen actions or, if you prefer, his way of being in the world. It is the stuff of the moral judgment of a person. This essay will explore what kind of character Rowling holds up as a model for civilization by showing her emphasis on choice versus destiny, how choices must be made according to the criteria of truth and absolute moral limits, and the deeper magic of love, which is sacrificial and forgiving and which is taught most often in the context of the family. We find the kind of character Rowling portrays as good to be strongly consonant with what Paul VI called a "civilization of love" and what John Paul II has called a culture of life.

How Harry is to grow up and what he is to become is a central point of drama in the stories. There are numerous pressures coming from, respectively, Harry's Muggle (or nonmagical) relatives, the elements of magical society that believe in fortune-telling, the elements that espouse a purity of blood cult, and Harry himself that all seem to advocate a rather fatalistic view of the human person.

Harry's Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon themselves represent the fatalistic view of life very well. Their entire mistreatment of Harry is based upon...