A Very Potter Post: The Limited Imaginations of Uncle Vernon and Uncle Andrew

Jay Parker

My head is wrapped up in Harry Potter these days and for good reason. A couple of weeks ago it was Mother's day and my family watched the first four movies (my wonderful mom actually said, "Harry Potter. Pizza. Cookies. Beer. Yay!"). If that wasn't enough to put me in the mood, I also started re-reading the books in preparation for two things:

Firstly, I'm re-reading the series is because I'll not only be attending this year's Leakycon in Portland, but actually presenting a paper about the Hogwarts ghosts while I'm there! I'm really not the best public speaker, but last year I presented a paper for the first time at Mythcon in Berkeley and managed to be fine. I hope things run at least as smoothly for Leakycon at the end of June. Wish me luck!!


The second reason I started re-reading the series is because of the Harry Potter Book Club that is being run by a few of my favorite bloggers. Jenna St. Hilaire from A Light Inside, Christie from Spinning Straw Into Gold, and Masha from Cyganeria are all reading and discussing the series from the very beginning and invite anyone and everyone to join in. I've been enjoying their posts and would like to encourage anyone who is interested to head on over to any one of those blogs. This re-reading is a bit different than you might expect- as Jenna says in her introductory post:

 This is not just any thoughtful, playful, highly interactive read-through, either. It's an extensive conversation between three disparately-experienced readers: one longtime Potter fan, one longtime not-a-Potter-fan, and one new reader of the stories. Ideally, it will be intense—and magical—and legendary—and fun. 

Start the book club by going here and reading the full introductory post!

Here are some of my own thoughts from reading the first few chapters this time around:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone famously opens up with everything the series is not. That is, with the absurdly close minded, boring, just plain awful Dursleys. There is nothing this book series is less about than a boring "firm called Grunnings"(1) or the mindless gossip Petunia overhears by "craning [her neck] over garden fences"(1). The wonderful first sentence, "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much"(1) allows children to immediately pick up on the irony of Privet Drive and must instantaneously beg a response something along the lines of my usual one: 'humph! Are they now?'

Daaakota

I love that throughout this first chapter there is a constant disconnect between what the reader sees and how the Dursleys act. For instance, we're told that Petunia gushes over the fact that Dudley learned a new word, but the narrator humorously tells us in parentheses that that word is "won't!"(6)- explanation point included. The Dursley's are just so blatantly proud that they are never mixed up with anything unusual that they're not just boring people, they are downright smug about being boring: Even as Mr. Dursley gets ready to leave for the morning, we're told, "Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work"(2).
Everything is set up in these first few pages so that, as readers, we are immediately in on the joke. The narrator pokes so much fun at the Dursley's that before we even meet Harry, before we even know how truly awful the Dursley's are, there's no denying it: we're on Harry's side.

These first few pages are also the only time we really get into Mr. Dursley's head. Jenna states that Mr. Dursley is "so completely wrapped up in this superficial life, so shielded from imagination, that despite all the cloaks and owls and shooting stars and cats, neither Halloween nor saints ever seem to come to his mind. It's just another day to the Dursleys." Mr. Dursley does not just ignore his own imagination, he actively shuts it out. He puts up his own shield. When he first notices strange things happening around Privet Drive all his first instincts (to think a cat is reading a map, to think that there are a group of strange people out, and to think that it all has something to do with Harry) are actually all spot on. But Mr. Dursley simply talks himself out of believing what he's seeing. He's a veritable Uncle Andrew. If you've read C.S. Lewis' The Magician's Nephew, you'll remember that Uncle Andrew, along with Polly, Diggory, Frank the cabby (and his wife), and Jadis, is present at the moment of Narnia's creation. While the others are able to hear beautiful music and understand the language of animals, He and Jadis (the White Witch of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) cannot and will not understand. The narrator states, "For what you see and hear depends a good deal where you're standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are" (125). Like Mr. Dursley, Uncle Andrew talks himself out believing what he is seeing and hearing:

When the lion had first begun singing...he had realized that the noise was a song. And he disliked the song very much. It made him think and feel things he did not want to think and feel. Then, when the sun rose and he saw that the singer was a lion ("only a lion," as he said to himself) he tried his hardest to make himself believe that it wasn't singing and never had been singing...he thought, "I must have imagined it. I'm letting my nerves get out of order. Who ever heard of a lion singing?" (126).

Mr. Dursley's first encounter with something magical works in much the same way:

Deeterhi

It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar--a cat reading a map. For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen-- then he jerked his head around to look again. There was the tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he be thinking of? It must have been the trick of the light...he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive--, no, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs (2-3).

Both uncles work hard to disprove or rationalize their way out of believing in something extraordinary, even when they witness it first hand. This moment with Mr. Dursley and the cat (McGonagall) is wonderfully paralleled just a few pages later, when Harry likewise comes face to face with an animal. Unlike his uncle, Harry does not hesitate a moment to believe in what he sees. The snake in the zoo winks and Harry, recognizing the snake's ability to communicate and understand, immediately responds with a wink of his own.

I just don't think I can put it better than the narrator of The Magician's Nephew, who states, "Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. Uncle Andrew did. He soon did hear nothing but roaring in the Aslan's song. Soon he couldn't have heard anything else even if he had wanted to" (126).
That's precisely what Mr. Dursley is in danger of doing and is what drives not only this first chapter, but the rest of the series. The Harry Potter series deals so much with faith (both in and out of a religious sense) because everything about magic asks you to trust in a force you cannot see. Mr. Dursley, who doesn't trust the magical world he actually sees, is the epitome of what happens to someone as 'successful' as Uncle Andrew. Imagination is human nature; if we actively push it aside we become more than boring, we become people who delight in the ordinary, we become just so squeamishly Dursley-ish. And if there's one thing this chapter does, it makes sure we don't want to have anything to do with being "perfectly normal." If this is a book about expecting the extraordinary, bring it on-- we're darn sure ready to believe.

ShadowAsh82

Christmas Ring Structure in Harry Potter

       Over at the Hogs Head, there have been some excellent posts on Christmas in the Harry Potter series; from recent ideas on the different types of gifts (from the 'groaners' to the 'glorious') to the not so recent- but very wonderful- thoughts on the mythic space of Christmas. In a similar spirit, I'd like to look closely at some of the Christmas scenes in the Potter series, this time with a particular focus on the story's ring structure.

        For any that might be new to ring composition in literature, it's pretty much what it sounds like: the story comes around "full circle" and the ending echoes the beginning. However, it's also certainly more complex than it at first sounds- especially when Rowling is involved. For an exploration of the rings within rings, parallels and chiasmus structure in the Potter series, check out what John Granger has to say on the matter. For now, a simple explanation of ring structure in the Potter series essentially is that the Sorcerer's Stone (the beginning) and the Deathly Hallows (the end) meet and echo one another. Chamber of Secrets and Half Blood Prince, do the same. As does Prisoner of Azkaban and Order of the Phoenix. Goblet of Fire, as the fourth and very middle of the series, has elements that echoes all 6 other books and many more elements that parallel the first and last novel. You can think of the series in terms of a circle:

         7    1

      6    4    2      

         5    3

So, looking through the ring cycle lens, let's take a look at how the Christmas chapters in the Harry Potter series connect, what they mean, and how they bring the story together as a whole.

Christmas in Sorcerer's Stone and Deathly Hallows

    Christmas in the Sorcerer's Stone takes place during one of the most memorable chapters in the whole book: The Mirror of Erised. You'll remember it's Christmas morning when Harry mysteriously receives his father's invisibility cloak. He spends a "happy afternoon" (204) with Ron and his family and enjoys an intimate and magical dinner with some of the Hogwarts staff and the Weasleys. Later that night, Harry puts on his invisibility cloak: "he had to try it, now....his father's cloak- he felt that this time-" (205). After a failed attempt to sneak a peek into the books in the library's restricted section, Harry stumbles onto the Mirror of Erised, where he not only sees his parents for the first time, but some of his more distant family as well. Christmas in SS is all about Harry feeling free and at home. Hogwarts becomes more comfortable than ever: he is not threatened by Malfoy (who is gone for the holidays), there's no homework to worry about, and the invisibility cloak even temporarily liberates him from the school's rules. Harry's run-in with the Mirror is a bit eerie, but the overall atmosphere is light and joyful. 

  In Deathly Hallows, Harry spends his Christmas with Hermione and ventures into Grodic's Hollow, the home to Harry's and Dumbledore's past and the final resting place of Harry's parents. Where Harry saw his parents in the first novel as "smiling at him and waving" (208), here Harry visits his parents by standing over their grave, feeling a "grief that had actually weighed on his heart and lungs" (328). He imagines not their smiling faces but their " moldering remains...bones now surely, or dust" (329). As he does in front of the Mirror, Harry becomes so entranced with the thought of his parents in front of him that he almost "forgets to live" (SS, 214) and becomes "close to wishing, at this moment, that he was sleeping under the snow with [his parents]" (329). 

      Christmas during the Deathly Hallows does not have any of the simple enjoyments of Harry's first christmas at Hogwarts. But it echoes Harry's connection to his home and family. Harry visits what was once his family home; he visits his parents grave; he even comes across the graves of his ancestors, the Peverrel brothers, who passed down the Invisibility cloak to him (a further connection with the Christmas in SS). In both Christmases Harry feels at home, even if it's in a different way. The graveyard scene amplifies the eerie feeling of the Mirror and Harry's homecoming is ultimately a more somber and gothic affair. Nonetheless, there are undeniable connections between the two scenes. 

Christmas in Chamber of Secrets and Half Blood Prince

     The major connection between these two novels is Harry's obsession with what he thinks Draco is up to. In Chamber of Secrets, Harry, Hermione, and Ron enjoy another magical, intimate Christmas feast. But instead of retiring to the Gryffindor common room, they add the finishing touches to their polyjuice potion and transform into Crabbe and Goyle (and half-cat in Hermione's case) in order to investigate Malfoy. The trio are so convinced that Malfoy is the Heir of Slytherin that even Hermione agrees to break the rules to brew a dangerously advanced potion. Harry and Ron eventually find out that Malfoy is not heir of Slytherin, even though he does wish to "help them" (223). Prejudices between families also plays an important part in this scene. Harry not only finds out the password to the Slytherin dormitories is "Pure Blood", but witnesses Draco's prejudices against "mudbloods" like Hermione and watches as Draco relishes in the muggle loving Weasley family troubles.

On a smaller note, Ron's brother Percy also makes an unexpected appearance in this chapter, acting pretty pleasantly enough, though certainly secretive.

    In Half Blood Prince, the issue of blood and prejudices (if the title of the novel didn't make it obvious enough) is an important issue. Come Christmas time, Harry spends the holiday at the Burrow instead of Hogwarts but he is once again obsessed with figuring what Draco is up to. The chapter opens up with Harry telling Ron the overheard conversation between Snape and Draco: "'Snape was offering to help him!" said Harry. 'He said he'd promised Malfoy's mother to protect him, that he'd made an unbreakable oath or something-' " (325). Later on he takes the issue up with Lupin and Arthur, and even though it's hard to deny the fact that Draco's up to something, they insist that Harry might have "inherited an old prejudice" against Snape from his father. Like the prejudices handed down to Draco from his father Lucius (and the prejudices that the Slytherin house promotes), Harry struggles with his own types of judgements and prejudices. Interestingly, Percy makes another unexpected appearance and is secretive of any real reason he is there. 

   Thus, father-son prejudices and the identity of unknown person (who is the Heir of Slytherin? Who is the Half Blood Prince?) are at the heart of both of these Christmas chapters. 

Christmas in Prisoner of Azkaban and Order of the Phoenix

        In both Prisoner of Azkaban and Order of the Phoenix Christmas begins with a lot of tension. In each of the chapters prior to these, Harry experiences something shocking and traumatic. In Prisoner of Azkaban, this happens when Harry overhears the conversation about Sirius and his parents in The Three Broomsticks: "' Black betrayed them?' " breathed Madam Rosmerta.

"He did indeed...he seems to have planned this for the moment of the Potters death'" (206).

After hearing this, Harry spends the time leading up to Christmas in a fog. He hardly notices the holidays approaching and only snaps out of it by visiting Hagrid and agreeing to help him win Buckbeak's trial. Harry's Christmas at Hogwarts once again involves a wonderful feast with the Hogwarts staff (this time with Trelawney eating among them) and a priceless gift given by someone unknown (this time, a firebolt from Sirius). But the tension does not lessen: Hermione and Ron keep arguing over Scabbers and Crookshanks, and Harry and Hermione begin to fight over the Firebolt's confiscation. Christmas in Prisoner of Azkaban is a tense, stifling affair.

       In Order of the Phoenix the tension at Christmas time is ten times worse. Harry has just visited Voldemort/ Nagini in a dream and witnessed the snake attack on Arthur Weasley. Arthur is rushed to St. Mungos and is luckily saved. But Harry not only believes that he is at fault for the attack, but that he also might be being possessed by Voldemort. Like he was when he heard of Sirius's 'betrayal' in PoA Harry closes himself off from his friends and isn't revived until 1) He actually speaks to his friends and 2) He is moved by someone else's suffering instead of his own. In Prisoner of Azkaban, hearing Hagrid's suffering for his beloved Buckbeark not only distracts Harry, but gives him something to pour all his anger and anxiety into. His visit to St. Mungos in Order of the Pheonix, does the same. There, Harry sees Neville and, for the first time, his mentally abused parents. He is moved by Neville's suffering: he "could not remember feeling sorrier for anyone" (513) and "did not think he'd ever found anything less funny in his life" (515).
Throughout these Christmas chapters, there is a threat of attack (from Sirius or from Nagini/Harry), and there is frustration with what the adults think is the best for Harry (McGonagall's taking of the Firebolt and Dumbledore's infuriatingly vague orders to "Stay where you are" (495). Ultimately, however, these chapters are about tension, suffering, and pity. 

Christmas in The Goblet of Fire

       As part of the novel that binds the series together as a whole, the Christmas chapter in Goblet in Fire is all about bringing everyone together. By its nature, the Triwizard Tournament brings together foreign witches and wizards. We certainly see a lot of that in this chapter: Fleur Delacour and Victor Krum develop romantic relationships with Hogwarts students, and, despite growing up in different parts of the country, Hagrid and Madame Maxim share a bond by belonging to the same race (though Maxime denies it). 

   But for all the coming together of foreign peoples, there is even more merging between the students already at Hogwarts. Contrary to any other Christmas at Hogwarts, almost all of the students stay at school for this holiday to attend the Yule Ball. As a result, students of different houses, genders, and years to come together. Harry even unexpectedly spends his Christmas morning not just with his fellow roommates, but with Dobby, someone from an entirely different race. Students like Ginny and Neville, along with Ron, Harry, and the Pavarti sisters, come together as different genders, different school years, and different houses. Most of all, Cedric, despite competing against Harry in the Triwizard cup and belonging to a different house, offers Harry a tip with the second task of the Tournament: "Take a bath, and -er- take the egg with you....use the prefect's bathroom" (431). Finally, instead of breaking them apart, Ron and Hermione's arguments throughout the night do more to bring to light their feelings towards each other, rather than the other way around. Christmas in the fourth and binding novel, then, ultimately works to bring everyone together.

[ EDIT: This is now cross-posted over at the Hog's Head here. I feel very honored to be included with such encouraging and insightful Potter pundits :) ]

The Hogwarts Sorting Hat: the Struggle of Family Bloodline and Personal Identity in the Chamber of Secrets

      It's no news that the sorting hat in the Harry Potter series is far from perfect. At the very least, it's a considerably more complicated system than what is at first suggested. As it's introduced to us in the Sorcerer's Stone, the sorting hat seemingly- and very clearly- sets the parameters of good and evil. By the end of Deathly Hallows Dumbledore reflects, "perhaps we sort too soon," but 19 years later the hat is still being used to sort new coming students into separate houses. 
What, then, is the larger purpose of the sorting hat? And what can we learn from Harry's experiences with it in one of his most pivotal years at Hogwarts?

Image by DraconisAsh28 on pottermore

    The four houses of Hogwarts come to represent a variety of witch and wizard character traits, but one of the first things Harry learns in the Sorcerer's Stone is to associate certain houses with certain type of people.  Before even stepping foot in a magical community Hagrid tells Harry, “There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one” (Stone 80). Later on, Hermione likewise states that Gryffindor “sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it” (Stone 106). The houses are set up as an antithesis of good and evil- a system by which to measure to the very best and the worst of wizarding kind. This is also gives interesting insight into how the wizarding community regards Hogwarts Houses: the Sorting process extends far beyond a witch or wizard's school days. It is not a one time judgement of character, but a continual sign of status that is clearly both shaped by and helps shape reputations of witches and wizards. Because despite graduating Hogwarts long ago, Voldemort and Dumbledore's standing connection to their Hogwarts house show Harry the long term, real world effects of sorting, and gives Harry clear examples of evil and good.

      The house Sorting gets more complicated in The Chamber of Secrets as the role of magical bloodline begins to play a more important and more visible role. The threat of Slytherin's Heir throughout the second novel links bloodline with Hogwarts houses and thus prompts Harry to question how much weight family blood has when it comes to the Housing sorting. Even a quick look at the Weasley family for instance, suggests that family blood and houses are very connected. All the Weasley children are placed in Gryffindor and even the extended Weasley family members (excepting a mysterious Lancelot who "nobody talks about") are as well.  Similarly Just as Draco and his father share the “same pale, pointed face, and identical cold, gray eyes” (50), so too do they share similar Slytherin values. Draco's menacing shout of “ Enemies of the Heir, Beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods”(139) is both a word for word echo of the Slytherin Heir's writing on the wall, as well as an echo of his fathers earlier sentiments of how terrible it is that “wizarding blood is counting for less” (52). Although family blood does not ensure placement in a particular House, Harry believes it has a significant bearing, convincing Hermione, “look at [Draco's] family...the whole lot of them have been in Slytherin; They could easily be Slytherin's descendents. His father's definitely evil enough” (158).

Image from the pensieve

       Harry, however, is unable to learn his family history, so when he discovers he shares the unique talent of speaking Parseltongue with Salazar Slytherin and Voldemort,  he struggles over the Sorting Hat's decision to place him in Gryffindor. Harry questions himself thinking, “Could he be a descendent of Salazar Slytherin? He didn't know anything about his father's family, after all” (197). Harry's fears are fueled by the amount of weight given to wizarding blood this school year and leads him to forget that there is something far more important in determining where he belongs than the hat: his individual choices. Thoughout the whole novel, Harry seems to forget the simple fact that he doesn't want to be in Slyhterin. Instead, Harry's fears of being attached to Slytherin deepen and his very Gryffindor-like actions go unnoticed. Of course, we remember that the only reason Harry discovers he is a parsletongue is because he was trying to save Justin (it doesn't get much more Gryffindor than that). But Harry overlooks this just like he overlooks one of the most obvious things that distinguishes him from the Slytherin: his choices in friends. Apart from Hermione in the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry spends his time in Chamber of Secrets befriending a host of magical beings that many Slytherins would never accept as proper wizards, much less as friends. Harry does so, going out of his way to keep them happy, even if it means offering an awfully loud Dobby a seat at the Dursely household, or attending a Deathday Party despite a growling stomach and the alluring annual Halloween feast. Harry consistatnly makes choices to treat others with empathy and equality; qualities clearly lost on the prejudiced Slytherin's. 

    Harry spends a lot of time in the second book worrying about being "Slytherin". But even when Harry is at his most Slytherin (using Parsletongue, or his polyjuice-induced literal transformation into a Slyhterin) he is also at his most Gryffindor.  For instance, after witnessing Draco sneering at Percy, Harry-as- Goyle “almost said something apologetic to Percy but caught himself just in time” (220). Throughout the series, and most particularly in Chamber of Secrets, Harry also exclusively uses Parseltongue for very Gryffindor-like reasons, not only stopping the snake from attacking Justin, but using it to enter the chamber of secrets and ultimately save Ginny.

   Harry's second year at Hogwarts introduces us to the complicated prejudices and animosities between houses, wizarding blood, and magical creatures. Yet at the end of the novel, despite knowing the eerie similarities between himself and Voldemort, Harry knows he is not destined to be anything like him- not merely because he is in a different Hogwarts house, but because he is more aware of his own actions and choices. When Dumbledore offers Godric Gryffindor's sword to Harry as “proof ...that you belong in Gryffindor” (333), Dumbledore is not just comforting Harry's one time accomplishment of being sorted into Gryffindor, but comforting Harry that is it his consistent “choices ...more than our abilities” (333) that continues to shape who he is. Although Slytherin and Gryffindor respectfully remain representative of evil and good, Harry's struggle within the Chamber of Secrets ultimately broadens our understanding of houses, preparing us for the surprises and betrayals in the likes of Sirius, Regulus, Peter Pettigrew, and Snape in the following novels. 

Citations:

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. New York: Scholastic Press. 1997. Print.

- - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. New York: Scholastic Press. 1999. Print.