Politicizing Harry Potter

Well the side-bar is not completely accurate. I finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and went on to finish the much longer fourth book as well. Then last Thursday, I broke down and purchased Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix in hardcover (although between the sale price and my discount card, I only paid 60% of the cover price for it). Initially, I was going to wait for the soft cover to come it. Believe it or not, I finished it this morning — over 800 pages of it!
I find it amazing that J.K. Rowling is still as fresh in fifth book as in the first. Definitely worth the three-year wait. Yet I found it much more of an adult novel than a children’s one. Whereas the first book was simply a fun children’s tale of good vs. evil — in itself refreshing in this age of relativism — I found the fifth book much darker as Harry struggles through adolescence, various shades of gray and some of his heroes begin to show weakness or character flaws.
That being said, and I am sure this is probably not the intention of the author, but in many ways the book struck me as a metaphor for the culture war and the current attempt of the homosexual movement to legalize same-sex marriage. The Weasley family definitely strikes me as having a Catholic outlook on things, especially as it concerns the family. With seven children, the second most important thing to Arthur and Molly Weasley are their family, and the various sacrafices they make for their marriage and for their children is a constant theme throughout the series. While the younger kids sometimes grumble about being poor, the parents find their hapiness in making these sacrafices for their children. And even when they cannot afford to do so, they also take in Harry (an orphan) and others in need. There is no bitterness over their poverty; their pleasure lay in stretching the budget to provide as warm a home to their children (and other children in need) as possible.
Which leads me to the one thing they won’t sacrafice for the financial welfare of their family — namely, their belief in doing kindness unto others and the difference between right and wrong. What’s interesting is that emotionally this becomes very for Mrs. Weasley at three points during the book. At the first point, she must sacrafice her relationship with one of her children to do the right thing. At a second point, she realizes that doing the right thing could endanger the lives of her children. At at the third point, she discovers her husband is bordering on death in the hospital because of serious injuries that arose from a situation in which he was fighting evil.
On a similar note, Prof. McGonagal has all the qualities of a mother superior from a Catholic teaching order. She has sacrificed her prospects for marriage and family for the education of students, with whom she is strict but fair. The students may not always appreciate this, but for her teaching the students the difference between right and wrong is much more than a career — it is a vocation. This can be seen through her loyalty to the school and its headmaster, even when it endangers her future. The same cannot be said for the new Defense Against Dark Arts teacher, who is definitely has all the qualities of a career-orientated radical feminist.
And of course, Dumbledore has all the qualities of a wise and cunning Jesuit. He possesses a lot of power, but only wields it when necessary — and always in the cause of good, even if it costs him worldly honors. In fact, some of the funniest lines in the book involve Dumbledore for this reason. One example is when he’s stripped of most of his worldly honors and positions of authority for telling the truth, despite the fact that the truth is not popular. “He said he doesn’t care,” one of the students remarks, “as long as they don’t remove him from the Chocolate Frog Cards” (the wizarding world’s equivalent to baseball cards.)
On the other hand, the Death Eaters have infiltrated the Ministry of Magic reminds me of how the agents of the culture of death have infiltrated our cultural and political institutions. Notice how Mr. Malfoy, one of the richest wizards and principle followers of the Dark Lord, only has one child. He and his son are also always mocking the Weasleys over their poverty, their kindness to others and the size of their family. Mr. Malfoy denies in public he’s a follower of the Dark Lord and basically uses his money to exert pressure over various institutions in the wizarding world. In a sense, the rise of the Death Eaters in the fifth book reminds me of how homosexual activists have risen to push through their agenda of gay marriage. Anyway, these are just a few parrallels I see between Harry Potter and the culture wars.