Andree-Jeanne Tötemeyer

The point of departure of my paper will be the argument brought forward by proponents of the Harry Potter series by Joanne K Rowling, that if the Potter series should be banned, all fairy tales should also be banned, since they have the same moral basis, namely the universal struggle between good and evil, with the main character as champion of the good.

I will investigate the verity of this statement by examining the realms of light and darkness portrayed in fairy and folk tales, modern fantasy and the four books which so far have been published of the planned seven in the Potter series. The main focus of this paper will however, be on the four Harry Potters with some reference to fairy and folk tales as well as some titles within the sub-genre of modern fantasy, for comparative purposes only. The proper names, Hänsel and Hobbit in the title of my paper, only serve as prototypes of the two literary sub-genres to which they belong. The realms of light and darkness will be related to the moral and spiritual elements of good and evil, as portrayed in the aforementioned stories, through the literary tools of mainly characterization and space or background.

2. Similarities in the Potter series, fairy and folk tales and modern fantasy

The maltreated orphan who gets empowered by good spirits to free himself from bondage and finds a big fortune and a better life elsewhere, is a theme well known in fairy and folk tales. Like Hänsel and his sister Gretel, Cinderella and Snow White, Harry is also maltreated by stepparents, his life is threatened by an evil force (child eating witch / Voldemort) and finds a better home where he can be happy.

It is indeed also true that the moral basis of all these stories is the universal struggle of good against evil, with the main characters being champions of the good. In The lion, the witch and the wardrobe by C S Lewis (1950), Aslan the lion and symbol of the good, allows himself, in a Christlike way, to be slaughtered for others. His sacrifice brings resurrection for himself as well as victory over evil. Harry Potter’s mother also sacrifices her life for her son, her love rendering him invincible to the evil mortal curse of Lord Voldemort. Harry personifies virtues such as integrity, courage, fair play, making sacrifices, bravery, steadfastness, daring. There is also a strong element of magic in all the stories under investigation. Magical objects are given to the protagonists by fairies or other kindly spirits such as their ancestors, to assist them in overcoming evil.

As far as characterization is concerned, there are also striking similarities: in folk and fairy tales, the majority of the characters in the same story are flat. They are either very good or very bad, with the exception of the main character who usually has some flaw which almost causes his downfall. The same pattern in a more developed form, is followed in modern fantasy and also in the Potter series. The main characters are fully human with both good and weak facets, to the point of being almost anti-heroes, surrounded by flat or single faceted minor and marginal characters. Unambitious, fat-bellied Bilbo Baggins, the hero in The hobbit by J R R Tolkien (1937), proves in the end to be a hero with extraordinary courage. Harry Potter and his two friends are neither beautiful nor very popular at school but time and again manage to survive and postpone the final onslaught of evil.

The main difference between the Potter series and fairy tales and fantasy stories until about the 1960's, lies in the relation of good and evil with the realms of light and darkness. Folk and fairy tales have two realms: the realm of light, connected with good and the realm of darkness, connected with evil. Witches are decidedly bad and belong to the realm of darkness. Until about the middle of the previous century, fantasy stories also presented the same two realms, with heroes hailing from the realm of light, who might venture into the realm of darkness, protected by magical objects or kindly spirits, but returning safely and greatly relieved, to the realm of light after successful completion of the quest. In contrast, the Potter series presents three realms: the Dark Side which is thoroughly evil, the Muggle or ordinary world of light in which we all live, but which is now not connected with good, but is also portrayed as evil or at least pathetic and unacceptable, and the twilight world of White Magic or semi-occultism which represents the good. In this respect, the Potter series has brought change in children’s literature, albeit there are forerunners, such as German writer, Ottfried Preußler’s Die kleine Hexe (1957), and South Africa’s own rather witless Liewe heksie series by Verna Vels. The otherness, strangeness or remoteness of the worlds of the two endearing little witches, is however sufficient so as not to tempt the child to want to try to permanently abandon his own reality. In the novel by Susan Cooper entitled Greenwitch (1974), there is also mention of three realms: outer Time, to which the man of the Dark is banned, the realm of Wild Magic to which Greenwitch belongs and the realm of light or the ordinary world portrayed positively. Ursula LeGuin’s novels, The wizard of earthsea (1967), The tombs of Atuan (1969) and The farthest shore (1972), feature the young wizard, Ged, the symbol of good, who operates in a third realm between the realms of darkness and light, but fighting the dark side in order to save the world of light. Like Harry, Ged is a wizard and the main character.

The Magical World is governed by the Ministry of Magic, whose main job is "to keep it from the Muggles that there are still witches and wizards up and down the country" (p.5). Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry teaches subjects in the field of occultism and prescribes set books on topics such as spells, curses and counter-curses, fantastic beasts, self-protection against Dark Forces, magical creatures, the subjects divination, transfiguration, potions and charms. The school uniform is a black robe, a pointed hat, a black cloak, and dragon hide gloves. Students must also acquire a wand, a cauldron in which to cook magic potions, and a broomstick. Wands are most powerful instruments. A wizard does not choose his wand, it chooses him. The students write with quills on parchment and use owls to deliver their post. The countryside is wild and Hogwarts school is housed in a mediaeval castle with dungeons, turrets and towers situated on a cliff, with a dark black lake at its foot and a forbidden forest. Dark colours such as violet, purple, mauve, black, acid green, pewter grey and scarlet are preferred. The centre of the school is the enchanting Great Hall with its bewitched ceiling and innumerable candles hovering in mid air over four long tables. (2:61).

Both realms of light and darkness are inhabited by evil stereotypes, the technique being the use of negative adjectives and verbs and cruel actions:

5.1 The Muggles inhabiting the light side

Harry’s Muggle relatives let him sleep in a cupboard under the stairs for the first ten years of his life. They forget his birthday, give him dog biscuits as a Christmas present, punish him cruelly, give him very little to eat, and old clothes to wear. His uncle Vernon Dursley is a red faced tyrant, horse faced aunt Petunia Dursley is very mean to Harry while spoiling her own son, Dudley. He is a spoilt brat who throws tantrums and bullies Harry.

Harry at one stage, states that not all Muggles are horrible (1:75), but with the exception of those who joined Hogwarts school, none of these reportedly good Muggles are portrayed in any one the four volumes. All Muggles are not "entirely stupid" though, but they are very naive and slow to recognize magic. The only acceptable Muggles are those like Hermione who has stepped over to the magical world. Magical people cannot comprehend how the Muggles manage without magic and find their inventions, such as electricity, telephones, etc., curious and very inadequate.

5.2 Dark characters connected to the Dark Side

Some of these are known allies of Voldemort while many are within Hogwarts, secretly operating for Voldemort, but pretending to belong to the Magical World. Lord Voldemort is a wizard who went bad, killing those who stood up to him in his rise to power. He has a terrifying, cunning, livid face, wide, mad eyes, an ice-cold, merciless voice, he hisses, he speaks silkily, laughs mirthlessly and cruelly, his face is chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.

5.3 Characters of the Magical world

As indicated, rounded characters are found only in the Magical World. Harry and his friends have ordinary human flaws and are the kind of young people with whom teenage readers can readily identify. Ron’s family is poor but very loving and accepting and offers Harry the home he never had. Harry’s favourite teachers such as Hagrid and Professor Mc Gonagall also have their weak and strong points which make them likeable human beings. Professor Dumbledore is the kind of school principal every student could wish for: a father figure, very understanding, the opposite of pompous, kind, wise, reliable and with a sense of humour.

The preoccupation with death is very prominent in the series and progressively so. In Book 1 The Slytherin serpent hisses in "a voice of breathtaking, ice cold venom, ‘......let me rip you.....let me tear you......let me kill you.....!’" (p.92). No actual killings take place, however. In Book 2 Harry, Hermione and Ron get invited to a Death Day party of ghosts in the dungeons of Hogwarts. The food consists of rotten fish, moldy cheese and a grey cake with tar-like icing in the form of a tombstone. The room is icy cold and is decorated in black, with music playing that sounds like "a thousand fingernails scraping an enormous black board" (pp. 91-104). Harry accidentally lands in Knockturn Alley, a shopping area for the Dark Arts in London which is out of bounds for respectable witches and wizards. There are shop windows displaying shrunken heads, poisonous candles and human finger nails. The shop, Borgin & Burkin is full if objects connected to death and the execution of people (p.44). Book 3 conveys a very sinister feeling: the Ministry of Magic uses so-called Dementors to guard the dreaded Azkaban prison. The Dementors, are sightless, foul creatures that "infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope and happiness out of the air", they make you relive the worst memories of your life, they suck every good feeling out of you with the feared "Dementor’s Kiss" reducing you to something like itself - soulless and evil. Azkaban is a terrible place where most prisoners "go mad within weeks" (p.140). The rehabilitation of criminals is clearly not on the agenda of the Magical World. Every time a Dementor comes near Harry, he can hear his mother crying and entreating Voldemort to spare Harry before he murders her. In Book 4, the story begins and ends with murders, and the whole atmosphere of the book is even darker and more gloomy than its predecessors. The powerlessness of the Magical Community to conquer the Dark Side is alarming. The Magic People live in constant fear of the Dark Side. The most important subject taught at Hogwarts, Defence Against the Dark Arts, is continuously infiltrated by supporters of Voldemort, thereby emphasising the vulnerability of the Magical World and the ineffectiveness of Hogwarts professors to detect the danger in their midst. The Magical World does not even dare refer to Voldemort by his name and call him, "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named". Dumbledore himself admits: "Voldemort has powers I will never have" (1:15).

Of the "Ten most challenged books of 1999", the Harry Potter series topped the list. Concerned parents, educators and some churches have been banning the books from school libraries in many countries, in the USA in 48 states. In spite of all the criticism, Eugen Emmerling, spokesperson of the German Booksellers’ Association (Börsenverein des deutschen Buchhandels) believes that, "We have a new cult.....The four volumes have reached a total print run the world over of 60 million copies....This is a world record for children’s books" (Allgemeine Zeitung 28.2.01). In the USA one million copies of the fourth book alone have been published.

7.1. Why children like the Potter books

# The stories are gripping, entertaining and imaginative

# The stories are humorous

# Many children, particularly little boys delight in the goriness

# There is a lot of wit in the stories

# Children can identify with Harry and his friends

# Hogwarts school even though a school for wizards, is very much a traditional British boarding school with strict rules, houses, sports, homework, exams, i.e. the otherness is mingled with the familiar

# Progressively the series deal with the difficulties and problems of prepuberty youngsters and teenagers growing up

# Children find the empowerment of the outsider child gratifying

# There is love and acceptance of the family and the solidarity of the gang or group

# The books intrigue and enchant children who get fascinated by the supernatural and the thrilling; the series fulfil the spiritual needs of children who in today’s world are spiritually starved (the question is: with what kind of spirituality?)

7.2. Why many adults and educators like the Potter books

A study has been made of the media debate in southern Africa in November 2000 in particular.

# The books encourage children to read (Jurgen Koch, Beeld 17.11.00; Verna Vels, Beeld 14.11.00; Tania Eksteen, Saturday Star 25.11.00)

# The books promote positive values. Neels Jackson (Beeld 14.11.00) states, "Harry is always on the good side.... Harry and his friends teach us how to resist evil powers.....Christian values of love and acceptance are presented by the home of the Weasley family......Dumbledore preaches the gospel of the importance of making the right choices"

# "People are spiritual beings......somehow we want to feel connected with something bigger..........the alternative is meaninglessness" (Annelie Ferreira, Beeld 14.11.00)

# The Potter books are written in a very good English

# The allusions to Greek mythology and the witty use of Latin, also in proper names amuse the more discriminate reader.

The following points have all been mentioned by Marina le Roux, (Die Burger 23.4.01)

in connection with the fourth book, Harry Potter and the goblet of fire:

# Children are encouraged to think, to make choices for themselves, to challenge authority and traditions

# There is social criticism which make children aware of corrupt, dishonest and incompetent government leaders, sensational media reporting

# Children are made aware of human rights such as the exploitation of minorities, and may I add, the psychology of the slave mentality

# Inter-cultural, interracial and inter-gender understanding is promoted

# "It is Harry’s inner strength, rather than his magical tricks that saves him from Voldemort".

7.3. Why witches like the Harry Potter books

CNN interviewed a number of witches (by their own admission), as reported in the Namibian Weekender (2.6.00): Michael Darnell who has been practising witchcraft for 25 years, stated: "For once, witches aren’t ugly old hags......For once they’re the protagonists rather than the villains......In Harry’s world, the non-witches are the weird ones".

8. Attacks on the critics of the Potter series

Critics of the Potter series are in the minority. An effort is being made to stifle an open debate by personal attacks on these critics:

# Kerneels Breytenbach (Beeld 13.11.00) of the publishing house Human & Rousseau who published the Afrikaans translations of the four Potter books, questioned the name, credibility and integrity of the well known Afrikaans writer, Maretha Maartens, for having raised objections against the series in the paper Die Volksblad

# Stehanie Niewoudt (Beeld 14.11.00) quotes Professor Johan Snyman, Department of Philosophy, Rand Afrikaans University): "The critics are people with an ego-weakness..... they cannot handle the complexity of reality......so-called experts make decisions on behalf of individuals......what they don’t understand they put in categories of witchcraft and Satanism......to them Satan is more real than the Redeemer"

# Tharina van Vollenhoven, librarian at a Catholic convent (Saturday Star 25.11.00) finds the "debate about Satanism ridiculous"

# Sue Mc Murray, children’s and youth specialist, Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council Libraries (Saturday Star 25.11.00), states that "witches are prevalent in a lot of children’s books, it’s nothing new".

9. Why some educators and parents criticize the Harry Potter books

# Maretha Maartens (Beeld 16.11.00) in her reponse to Kerneels Breytenbach’s personal attack on her, expresses concern about the possible effect which the Potter books might have on the unconscious mind of the child reader. She considers the atmosphere unhealthy and confusing. "The books differ from fairy tales because witches and wizards are main characters and not merely apparitions from outside....... I experience a progression (regression?) towards the sinister from book one, through to book two and three and to book four.....This brilliant piece of fantasy is just too convincing for the impressionable child"

# Neels Jackson (Beeld 14.11.00) states that "every reader should know that the fantasy world in which Harry moves is not the real world.....Parents must help their children to distinguish between fiction and reality". The important role of parents and educators to help children read the Potters critically was voiced by supporters as well as critics

# Gerrie Malan (Beeld 16.11.00) expresses the view that "Africa and the East know and understand the spiritual world but the West is like an ostrich with its head stuck in the sand"

# L Harmse (Beeld 17.11.00) states that the fallacy is "that a human being on his own can conquer evil, and that through more magic".

From this short analysis, I present the following conclusions:

1. Joanne K Rowling presents the magical world as a reality in the sense that the child reader in the end, is not brought back to normality, to the real world, a real world that is O K to be brought back into, like C S Lewis does with his Narnia series, Tolkien does with The hobbit or Susan Cooper does with her sequence of five fantasy novels. The Muggle world, the world of the child reader, is presented as an unattractive, unexciting, boring world, inhabited by cruel, nasty or at least, dim, naive, unintelligent, simple-minded people. The only acceptable Muggles are those who practise magic. Impressionable child readers, who whether they like it or not, are Muggles, may get confused and tempted to relinquishing touch with reality or normality by closing themselves in, in their minds, in an unreal, illusionary magical world. The boundary between the Muggle world and the Magical world is so fluid, that the child reader may believe that she could move in and out of these worlds with the same ease as Harry. The result of all this might lead to alienation from reality, a reality which could become increasingly difficult to cope with. We are in danger of producing a whole generation of useless dreamers, unfit to function in today’s world. Fantasy is an important sub-genre in children’s literature, but only if the child reader is helped to distinguish clearly between the other and the real world and is enabled to embrace and gladly return to reality when the fantasy game is over.

2. The investigation was to test the verity of the statement that the struggle between good and evil, light and darkness in the Potter series is the same as in fairy and folk tales. It has been proposed that this is not the case. In folk and fairy tales a duality of two realms is presented, while in the Potter series three realms, dark and evil on the extreme left, light or normal and evil on the extreme right and good and twilight in the middle are presented. The struggle of good against evil in the Potter series, is a struggle acted out between the two realms of twilight and darkness. It is a fact of physics that grey is but a shade of black. The tools of the good used in the Potter books, is a special combination of occultism and social and moral virtues used as an antidote against darker occultism, like administering snake serum to a victim bitten by a snake. It saves the life of the victim, but doesn’t kill the snake. The problem in my view is therefore, that even though Harry manages to stay alive over the span of four books, he doesn’t succeed in destroying the power of Voldemort. His is essentially a struggle for survival and not towards victory. On the contrary, Voldemort grows progressively stronger, culminating in his rebirth in volume four, able and ready to resume his former reign of terror. Harry’s blood is the last essential ingredient for the potion that allows Voldemort to rebirth. In volume four Dumbledore admits, "We are facing dark and difficult times" (4:724). It is also a fact of physics that twilight is but a brief interlude before total darkness closes in. One might argue that after darkness, the light may dawn again, but this remains to be seen. The Potter series has already progressed from twilight to dusk. We do not know what the next three Potter volumes will bring, hopefully a final victory over evil but even a positive grand finale at the end of volume seven will not suffice. Each separate title in the series, from the first to the seventh, should at least in the conclusion of each, bring some hope, since not all children will read all volumes. Children’s literature should in the final analysis not bring despair and not maybe some hope only at the end of the last volume of a series.

3. Basically the struggle has to do with power. The Potter books tell us that magic empowers and makes control of people possible and that the light is powerless. An illusion is created that magic can enable children to manipulate their environment and the carriers of authority over their lives such as parents and teachers. Their environment and the people who inhabit it, are portrayed in such negative and derogatory terms that children might feel justified to try and practise their imagined powers of magic in order to improve upon and even "save" reality. They are encouraged to believe that only they can protect themselves and the ignorant Muggles from the Dark Powers, by means of that special Potter brand of occultism blended with certain virtues.

4. The motto of Hogwarts school is: "Draco dormiens nunquam titilandus", or "Never tickle a sleeping dragon", but this is exactly what Joanne K Rowling does. The dragon inside of us is not only woken up, he is tickled pink. The series pander to the thirst for thrills, sensation, horror and the grotesque in children. There is the temptation to allow the void left inside of human beings, starved for spirituality, to be filled by the sinister. The question is, do parents recognize the source of the kind of spirituality instilled by the Potter series? Or are they too mugg(dd)led themselves to understand or to care?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cooper, Susan. 1966. Over sea and under stone. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Cooper, Susan. 1973. The dark is rising. New York: Atheneum.

Cooper, Susan. 1974. Greenwitch. New York: Atheneum.

Cooper, Susan. 1975. The grey king. New York: Atheneum.

Cooper, Susan. 1977. Silver on the tree. New York: Atheneum.

LeGuin, Ursula. 1967. The wizard of earthsea. New York: Parnassus.

LeGuin, Ursula. 1969. The tombs of Atuan. New York: Atheneum.

LeGuin, Ursula. 1972. The farthest shore. New York: Atheneum.

Lewis, C S. 1950. The lion, the witch and the wardrobe. Geoffrey Bles. (1959. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Puffin Books).

Preußler, Ottfried. 1957. Die kleine Hexe. Stuttgart: K Thienemanns Verlag.

Rowling, Joanne K. 1997. Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone. London: Bloomsbury.

Rowling, Joanne K. 1998. Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets. London: Bloomsbury.

Rowling, Joanne K. 1999. Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban. London: Bloomsbury.

Rowling, Joanne K. 2000. Harry Potter and the goblet of fire. New York: Scholastic Press. (American ed.)

Tolkien, J R R. 1937. The hobbit, or, There and back again. London: Allan & Unwin.

Vels, Verna. (1970?). Liewe Heksie series.

Back to: IRSCL Conference Programme