Politics Of Harry Potter
There are many published theories about politics in the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling, which range from criticism of racism to anti-government sentiments. According to Inside Higher Ed, doctoral theses have been devoted to the Harry Potter books. There are also several university courses centred on analysis of the Potter series, including an upper division Political Science course.
Time Magazine noted the political and social aspects of Harry Potter in their 2007 Person of the Year issue where Rowling placed third behind politicians Vladimir Putin and Al Gore. Harry Potter's potential social and political impact was called similar to the 19th century phenomenon of Harriet Beecher Stowe's popular, but critically maligned book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, which fuelled the abolitionist movement leading up to the American Civil War.
When asked about the politics and message in Harry Potter, Rowling explained, "I wanted Harry to leave our world and find exactly the same problems in the wizarding world. So you have the intent to impose a hierarchy, you have bigotry, and this notion of purity, which is this great fallacy, but it crops up all over the world. People like to think themselves superior and that if they can pride themselves in nothing else they can pride themselves on perceived purity. So yeah that follows a parallel . It wasn't really exclusively that. I think you can see in the Ministry even before it's taken over, there are parallels to regimes we all know and love." She also said, "You should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth."
The Wall Street Journal compared Neville Chamberlain to Rowling's Cornelius Fudge, saying both were eager to help their constituents look the other way to avoid war. "Throughout the '30s, Chamberlain, fearing that Churchill was out for his job, conducted a campaign against his fellow Tory. Chamberlain denied the existence of the German menace and ridiculed Churchill as a 'warmonger'. He used The Times—the government's house organ—to attack Churchill and suppress dispatches from abroad about the Nazis that would have vindicated him." Rowling confirmed Chamberlain was her inspiration in the Spanish newspaper magazine XLSemanal. Rowling also told the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant that Voldemort was "a sort of Hitler", and that her decision to draw parallels with Nazism in the books was immediate.
Read more about Politics Of Harry Potter: Education Versus Indoctrination, Racism, Ethnic Cleansing, and Nazism, Evils of War, Progressive Values and Diversity, Social Activism, Subversive and Anarchistic Message, Conservative Objections To Liberal and Socialist Values, Conservative and Sexist Values, Neoliberal and Capitalist Values, Class Distinctions, Anti-government Interpretation, Characters Compared To George Bush, Tony Blair, and Saddam Hussein, Education Reform, Anti-terrorism, Politics of J.K. Rowling, References
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