The Impact of Familial Relationships in Rowlings Harry Potter - Research Paper Example

? The Impact of Familial Relationships in Rowling’s Harry Potter There have been numerous additions to the genre of children literature over the recent years but none quite as popular as the Harry Potter series written by the highly acclaimed author Joanne Kathleen Rowling. The first book was published in the year 1997 and since then there have been several editions that have been widely sold over the years. The series is not only popular because it takes place in the world of fantasy but also because it has several themes and elements in it which are quite similar to our real life. Harry Potter is an orphan whose experiences with his family and friends allow him to inculcate certain qualities that turn him into a better and stronger person. Harry Potter’s parents are killed when he is only one year old so he stays “with his aunt, uncle, and cousin, all of whom despise and resent him” (Timmerman 348). His parents sacrifice their lives to keep him alive and safe from the villain that wants the baby dead. Lily Potter quite literally dies shielding the baby Harry with her body to protect him until her last breath. The love is so strong that it protects him from Lord Voldemort for the next thirteen years of his life. Unconditional love is the “kind of love that is truth, hope, everlasting, and enduring” and in Harry’s case it is, indeed, all of that (Tarpley-McCoy 27). However, one cannot correctly guess how it would have affected the child in question. Losing both the parents so early in life and in such tragic circumstances influences Harry’s mindset. For the next ten years of his life, at least, he has no one any more to properly look after him and he has to do things on his own, be his own savior and that of the others, too. Not having any outside support means that he has to depend on himself and become his own person and this is just the beginning. Living with the Dursleys is a great, big adventure but of the bad kind. It is expected that he – being the sole surviving member of the Potter family – would be coddled to death but that is not the case, rather it is the other way round. He practically lives the life of a servant with a tiny space to call his own; he tries to blend himself in the background when doing the chores and has orders to keep out of sight. But living in that house with its other occupants helps shape Harry into the person that he becomes later on. It is the tiny things that count like the excessive number of spiders in his sleeping quarters. Usually children and even grownups – be they male or female – hate spiders as they are afraid of them. As discovered in the second book of the series, one of Harry’s best friends Ron Weasley is extremely scared of the creatures, even the Boggart that he faces changes into a spider. However, “Harry (is) used to spiders” and has grown immune to them (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 11). It is just the start of him not fearing things that people are generally afraid of. A spider is the last of his problems when there is a potentially immortal Voldemort to fight off. He starts off his life not being scared of spiders and continues on to not being afraid of people. Harry has battles to fight even as a child. His cousin Dudley comes off as an overindulged brat. Often parents who have an only child tend to pander him a lot, which has a bad influence on the child’s personality. They do not realize that “showering (their) kids with material possessions and structuring their time so that they are always occupied won’t teach them patience” (White 32). This often leads to the child turning into a bully. His behaviors include “teasing, taunting, threatening, hitting, or stealing the victims’ belongings”; he may spread “rumors, or (cause) a student to be socially isolated by excluding him or her” (Winkler 15). This is the boy that Dudley is and Harry is the boy at the receiving end. So really, “not being loved by the Dursleys is a blessing as clearly it is not a love worth having” (Eccleshare 96). If Harry had been treated the same way as his cousin had been, he would have turned into a bully, too. “Dudley’s favorite punching bag (is) Harry” and it is up to the black haired boy to be sly and run away as quickly as possible (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 12). Even then he knows which fights are worth fighting for and when he should make an escape. His exploits result in him becoming independent and resilient. It is now when it becomes quite glaringly obvious that there is no one left to save him and he has to make his own way in the world. He becomes patient and being on the short end of stick allows him to realize how others in his situation felt like. Later, when he has a new start at Hogwarts, he takes care to stand up for himself, his friends and all those who the others threaten. Right in the beginning when they are in the Hogwarts Express and Malfoy is making fun of Ron, Harry immediately sides up with his new friend and tells the blond off. Even in the end, Voldemort is just a great, big bully terrorizing everyone and Harry is there risking his life to save the day. Dudley’s character starts to gradually change after his encounter with the Dementors when Harry conjures a Patronus to save him. Again, Harry realizes how bad the punishment to have no soul would be for the boy who had been misguided by his parents all his life. The boy has been tormented all his life by his cousin but Harry knows that Dudley does not deserve that and without any second thought to the dangers that it would result to, he whips out his wand to save another life. It is two books later that Dudley is shown as having matured with age and realizes how prejudiced his parents are. Much to Harry’s surprise, he tells him that he does not think that he is “a waste of space” and is actually worried about Harry’s safety when the Dursleys are going into hiding (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 24). Harry is touched, the past cannot be completely forgotten and surely there are greater things at stake but the fact that his actions had resulted in changing one person is good enough to strengthen his faith. Dudley changes into a better person which means that Harry now believes in the impossible. Harry’s relationship with his Aunt is not affectionate. The woman cannot quite get herself to love her nephew as he is a constant reminder of a sister that she has lost. Even though Lily and Petunia were not in good terms with each other, they were still sisters and loved each other in their own way. Thus, Harry is not treated as a favorite nephew. He is made to do the chores whilst Dudley never even lifts a finger to help; she spends the least amount of money over him, etc. This only makes Harry selfless and humble; he is (mostly) not prejudiced about anyone regardless of their blood or station in life. He realizes that it is only an individual’s character that counts and not how much money they have in their account. His interactions with Dobby show how he does not think of the house-elf as any lesser creature as is the norm in the Wizarding World. For just this courtesy, Dobby turns to help the boy time and time again until he eventually sacrifices his life to save Harry’s. It shows how what you sow is what you will reap. The only proper family that Harry has are the Weasley’s who “provide Harry with the supportive parenting and love that his parents’ murder and the Dursleys’ maltreatment denied him” (Heyman and Provenzano 116). Rowling recognizs “that children need to be able to draw on emotional strength to grow up and develop” and for Harry that strength comes from the Weasleys (Eccleshare 95). Ever since his friendship with Ron, he becomes a part of the family, starting off with getting a Weasley sweater on his first Christmas at Hogwarts. Mrs. Weasley “provides the same authoritative (strict but warm) parenting to Harry as she does to her other children” (Heyman and Provenzano 117). They teach him how love is the most important thing to have, loyalty towards family was everything and how you “could depend on one another in tough situations” (Timmerman 349). Later on, he legitimately becomes a family member by marrying the only daughter of the family: Ginny with whom he has three children. Harry Potter is about the life of a black haired, green eyed boy who started off this world with amazing parents only to be snatched away and replaced by a family of three by whom he was constantly downtrodden upon. His life gets better as he meets the Weasley’s and becomes perfect once he succeeds in making a family of his own. However, it is all these experiences that helped him to inculcate certain traits that made him a better person. Those who lead a life with a silver spoon in their mouth barely deem others to be important. Harry is clever, loyal and very courageous. He is modest, has the ability to forgive, and like people and magical creatures alike. He fights for what is right, not for himself but for the others. The purpose of defeating Voldemort was not selfish, he was not doing it for revenge for all the loved ones that he had lost but to free the people of his tyranny. His journey’s beginning was sad but had the happy ending that is much desired in all children’s literature. Bibliography Eccleshare, Julia. Guide to the Harry Potter Novels. 1st. Bloomsbury Academic, 2002. Heyman, Richard E. and Danielle M. Provenzano. "Harry Potter and the Resilience to Adversity." The Psychology of Harry Potter: An Unauthorized Examination Of The Boy Who Lived. Ed. Neil Mulholland. Smart Pop; First Trade Paper Edition, 2007. 326. Tarpley-McCoy, Hope. Help Me With My Child! Dog Ear Publishing, LLC, 2006. Timmerman, John H. In the World: Reading and Writing as a Christian. Baker Academic, 2004. White, Carolyn. The Seven Common Sins of Parenting An Only Child: A Guide for Parents and Families. 1st. Jossey-Bass, 2004. Winkler, Kathleen. Bullying: How To Deal With Taunting, Teasing, And Tormenting (Issues in Focus Today). Enslow Pub Inc, 205. Read More