I decided to reread each Harry Potter book and watch each movie, one after the other. My original goal was to compare and contrast the books to the movies and see what and how much they changed and/or dropped in translating the books to film. However, along the way, my focus changed. I came to realize that Ms. Rowling has some very nice things to say about friendship/love and death.
The entire thesis of her seven-book opus is that those who love are more powerful and better off than those who seek power, which is necessarily a singular task that does not brook relationships. She then takes this a step further and suggests that those who have love are not overly scared of, are accepting of, and are willing to brave death, while those who seek power are scared of death and will fight against it at all costs and to their very detriment.
Harry Potter originally survives because of the sacrifices of his parents, in particular his mother, in risking their own death to save their son from the evil Lord Voldemort. In doing so, they provide Harry with an invisible but extremely powerful protection that turns all of Voldemort's hatred and power back on himself and nearly destroys him.
Harry is then raised by his Aunt and Uncle in the "Muggle" (non-wizard) world. Although his time there is a trial, the fact that he is with family gives him an added protection from Lord Voldemort that makes him nearly untouchable while under their roof. It also teaches him to be humble, so that when he arrives in the wizarding world, the friends he makes are true, honest friends, rather than sycophants who will leach off of his celebrity.
In contrast to Harry, people gravitate to both Lord Voldemort and Draco Malfoy, two of the main antagonists in the stories, due to their notoriety, connections, and seeming power. However, those that do surround Draco and Voldemort are either weak servants (Crabbe, Goyle, Wormtail), or those who just want to be on the "winning side" and in place to take some amount of power from the one who have it (Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix). In particular contrast is the apparent home life of Malfoy versus Harry's best friend, Ron Weasley.
Malfoy has:
- A father who is cold, domineering, and power-hungry
- A mother who is cold and closed off
- No siblings to share his life with
- Wealth, a large house, and influence in the wizarding community, but no affection
Ron, meanwhile, is the polar opposite, having:
- Multiple brothers and sisters, who constantly show affection (even if some use playful banter and tricks to show it)
- Two parents who show a great deal of affection for each other, their children, and their friends
- Not a lot of money, but a wealth of spirit and love, which allows them to always get by
Voldemort, however, does not have this affection. As we learn more about his history, and see his actions in the present, we learn that he always shunned friendship in favor of power and preferred to use people and either move on or kill them. He had fear, a type of power, and a certain respect, but always felt he had to do everything on his own. His followers desert him when he needs them most (when his attempt to kill Harry as a boy fails), do not look for him for ten years, and few return to his side when he calls them. When more rally to his side later, it is because he appears strong and to be the side that will "win;" they do not return to him out of love or respect, but fear.
The end result of these situations is that Voldemort grows to fear death above all things. His need for power, respect, and greatness forces him to overcome the liabilities of his mortal shell and cheat death. This causes Voldemort to go down a very dark path, splintering his soul into multiple pieces, and making him take on a more alien, snake-like, and despicable mien. While it works, his life, such as it is, becomes a nearly unbearable existence for a time, where he must do even more reprehensible actions to gain back a semblance of the life he knew before. Voldemort simply cannot understand, and unconsciously refuses to accept, that there are worse things than death or that there are beliefs and people worth dying for. It also causes him to treat death rather cavalierly in his minions and followers; he does not value the life in anyone except himself.
Harry, meanwhile, grows up with death as a constant presence in his life. He knows his parents died, and later learns they died so that he might live. Throughout the books, others are injured and die to protect him (Sirius Black, Dumbledore), while fighting with him (Cedric Diggory), or toward the cause of stopping Voldemort's assumption of power (Snape, Tonks, Lupin, et al). In each case, however, it is their choice to do so, and they make it freely. The cause, or Harry himself, is more important to them and they make these sacrifices either to ensure someone's safety or insure that the cause will survive. In many cases, and much to Voldemort's chagrin, these dead people come back in some form or another to help Harry with his cause:
- Harry's parents return in the Mirror of Erised and teach him a valuable lesson, one that later allows him to get the Sorcerer's Stone and keep it from Voldemort.
- Cedric and his parents' shades erupt from Voldemort's wand and give Harry the time he needs to escape the graveyard when Voldemort returns to the mortal coil.
- Sirius' death teaches Harry the deadly business he has undertaken is not a game. It is the impetus for Harry actively taking on the threat of Voldemort rather than constantly reacting to Voldemort's attempts to kill him.
- Dumbledore's and Snape's deaths both empower Harry and show him what he must do in order to defeat Voldemort once and for all.
Snape actually winds up being the clearest example of this, in the end. Throughout the series, you assume he is one of the antagonists that Harry must overcome. At every turn, Harry seems to find evidence that Snape is working with Voldemort. When Snape kills Dumbledore, that seems to clinch it for all. However, in the end, Harry learns that Snape made the biggest sacrifice of all out of love; Snape loved Harry's mother so much that he changed his Patronus, helped her son, and pretended to be working with Voldemort and his cronies for years in order to set up Voldemort's eventual overthrow and death. Without that love for Lily Potter driving the constant sacrifices he was making on a daily basis, Snape could never have succeeded at his goal or made the necessary sacrifices to do the job.
Lastly, the biggest difference comes down to the prophecy that started the whole chain of events and how Harry and Voldemort interpret it. Voldemort assumes the prophecy means that one must kill the other, and so he attempts to kill Harry as a boy (and, so, marks Harry as his equal and giving Harry power, setting the prophecy moving forward), then multiple times during Harry's years at Hogwarts. Each setback causes Voldemort to seek out more magic, stronger spells and wands, and more violent confrontations in order to reach his goal.
Harry, meanwhile, comes to learn and accept that he must sacrifice himself and die in order to defeat Voldemort. He makes the choice that Voldemort cannot understand or make himself. The many sacrifices of those who helped Harry, and his great love for his living friends, makes this sacrifice worthwhile to him. It means he will save his friends and reach his ultimate goal of defeating the enemy. He goes not without fear, but with acceptance. And, because of that acceptance, he is able to overcome death, rise again, and defeat Voldemort once more.
Harry understands, in the end, that he has become one of the Horcruxes that house a tattered piece of Voldemort's soul and, as long as he is alive, Voldemort will exist. He must die to release that piece of soul, eliminating another Horcrux, and bringing Voldemort one step closer to his ultimate destruction. What makes this decision heroic is that Harry has no knowledge or even belief that he can survive, come back, or overcome his own death. He goes to his death understanding that his death is imminent and unavoidable, but also the right thing. His ultimate strength, his courage, shows him to be far stronger than Voldemort, who does everything in his considerable power to cheat death rather than face it.
Voldemort is the strongest wizard on the planet, but Harry Potter's fortitude and strength of character alone are enough to overcome all that strength and power and defeat his evil.
Ultimately, I think the Harry Potter series is good in that it teaches its reader this subtle message: that love is stronger than hate, and that friendship is stronger than power. From love and friendship flows a subtle but strong force that builds character and allows people to make decisions and sacrifices they simply cannot without those relationships. It also teaches readers to accept responsibility and do what is right rather than what it is easy.
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