Harry Potter and the Moral Issues

  “Harry potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” is a novel by JK Rowling that follows a young wizard who gets sent to wizard school with a strong reputation built upon by an evil wizard. Sounds like a typical kids adventure but becomes surprisingly deep through long moral metaphors, character studies and philosophy up the wazoo.

  It all starts with our main character, Harry Potter. Growing up in an almost Roald Dahl like family of obnoxious, cartoony and bratty side family, Harry easily becomes a saint and an easy character to relate to. He’s humble, polite and sweet as can be, open to anything and blind to most of the world’s issues. This is all in relation to his parents who unfortunately were killed by an evil wizard. You see a lot of them in him throughout the story and it’s apparent their presence is still within his conscience.

  Harry quickly becomes the most popular kid in school but somehow this doesn’t affect his ego. His best friends are a clumsy and dorky Ron Weasley and a Snobby Hermione Granger who are a fantastic trio for comedic and serious moments. They have major faults but Harry looks past that, friends are friends and while he easily could’ve become pals with the more popular students, he can’t ignore who his feelings relate to more. It’s more of a don’t judge anyone case which leads me to my next case.

  Draco Malfoy, the school bully that torments poor Harry and everyone in his class. This kid is a giant bugger but it never really goes beyond a casual rivalry to Harry (at least in this first book). Draco will bite back with insults and nastiness but Harry kind of just lets it happen. I think this is a definite theme of not giving judgment, Harry doesn’t really like this kid but he’s not going to stoop to his level and go off on him. It’s more of a “wow what a jerk” and the dichotomy of their feelings create a barrier of innocence to bullying.

  From contrast to judgment to morality, Potter displays its themes with tons of subtlety and thought making it relatable to the reader. If the six other books, film series and spinoffs proved anything, it’s that it did that job well.

The Hobbit and the Hero’s Journey

  The Hobbit is classic fantasy story by the great J.R.R Tolkien following a young Bilbo Baggins and his journey across Middle Earth to stop a dragon and restore peace. Sound familiar? It’s an incredibly typical plot to what’s known as the hero’s journey. An outline from Greek mythology that has been used billions of times in “Star Wars”, “Harry Potter” and pretty much most big name franchises you can think of. The Hobbit was one of the first to follow this guideline in a more modern approach.

  Starts with his typical life in a Hobbit home, explaining exposition and building the world around him. He meets Gandalf a wizard who calls him to adventure, he refuses only to call back and leave his normal world. They fight monsters, talk politics then dragon fight and boom, all is restored. Only to come full circle back to his Hobbit life where no sequels will ever happen…

  I personally believe The Hobbit nails the hero’s journey better than most and most of it is due to it’s incredible setting. Middle Earth is a land filled to the brim with details and constant discoveries, it’s a fantasy paradise. From many races, large towns/kingdoms, monsters and hell, a couple languages thrown in, it’s a land where multiple books have been written just to flourish it to the extreme. We also have a ton of fun characters here, Bilbo and Gandalf’s friendship seems so genuine and Smaug makes for a great villain. It’s also paced perfectly in around 300 pages, unlike the nine-hour Peter Jackson extravaganza.

  To say this book didn’t revolutionize the way we tell stories today would be the biggest understatement of the century. It modernized the hero’s journey to an extent where anybody could pick it up and enjoy it. It’s a timeless classic that will never lose it’s touch or historical merit. The amount of fantasy knock offs and cinematic copiers it’s had since it’s release solidifies it to the extreme. Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery there is, at least until the Tolkien family hears about it, then the lawyers come in.

Witches in Aunt Maria

  “Aunt Maria” (also known as “Black Mariah”) is a novel by Diana Wynne Jones about two siblings named Chris and Mig, who visits their old aunt. They later find out that she is a witch and has the whole village around her finger through powerful spells. At first, Aunt Maria is not a stereotypical witch character, she’s actually pretty sweet. She has tea parties, goes on walks and is pretty nice to our main characters. This is until they find out the real truth where the dull, zombie like villagers are under her spell and her butler was turned into a cat, now she’s your typical evil witch. The two emotions are so distinctly different but somehow manage to to wrap up perfectly within one character. Sweet old ladies can sometimes be insanely creepy, that’s why most witches fall under this category.

  When it comes to the topic of women in power, this book makes it an obvious message. The character of Chris is there to constantly question Aunt Maria with an incredibly rude attitude. With this conflict I believe Diana fully knew what she was trying to come across, most women can’t just have higher power without men constantly questioning their every move, even if the woman is evil such as this one. It might also stem on the power a woman can have on men. With men becoming “zombie like” towards her and the butler becoming her slave, it’s clear that sex appeal and a reputation can turn the strongest men into mindless freaks. Girls truly run the world in these sort of situations and more power to them for it. She’s eventually taken down in the climax and all is restored but hey the overwhelming power she had almost destroyed a whole village!

   Overall, Aunt Maria turns stereotypes on their heads and brings up some powerful points on the way women can rule the world and men’s reaction to it. Witches are pretty much a metaphor for women with power and it was neat to hear the subtle way those still attach in modern stories such as this.