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Monica Kempski
WGST199-01
Professor Uman
4/16/10
Imagine you are an orphan who lives with your abusive aunt and uncle.
Besides your glasses and an unusual scar on your forehead, you have no form of
personal identity; therefore, you feel worthless. Suddenly, your life changes as you
become introduced to a wondrous magical world, where you feel you truly belong.
This is the story of the Harry Potter books. Although the series are often regarded as
children’s books, J.K. Rowling’s phenomenon has touched millions and millions of
people worldwide. What most people identify with Harry Potter is the idea of waving
wands and flying around on broomsticks; however, the story is much more than
that. What most people fail to see is that there are very important themes that take
the story to a whole new, more complex level. Throughout her books, J.K. Rowling
makes it apparent that racism is wrong through the actions of “evil” characters;
however, even good characters will continue to engage in such activity because it
to overcome racism and stand up for what is right: this lesson is definitely evident in
Rowling’s work.
the seven novels, people are judged by the “blood-type” they have in relation to
being a wizard. The different blood types found in the wizarding world contribute to
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the notion of racial superiority. The all wizard blood type is prestigious and deemed
superior to the part wizards, creatures, or the pure muggles. Furthermore, these
different groups in society. To sum up the racist relations between the different
types of wizards, the muggles, and the creatures, Rowling created a gargantuan
symbol of the superior racist attitudes felt by some wizards- the Fountain of Magical
Brethren located in the Ministry of Magic. The fountain features a noble witch and
bodies, [muggle] men, women, and children, all with rather stupid, ugly faces,
twisted and pressed together to support the weight of the handsomely robed
wizard” (Rowling, Deathly Hallows 242). Thus, the muggles are the foundations of
wizards, yet they are to be held as subservient to a wizard’s needs. Their “stupid
ugly faces” also portray that the muggles are unintelligent and inferior to wizards.
In addition to this thrown, the fountain contains an elf, a goblin, and a centaur
looking adoringly at the wizards. Thus, the wizards are portrayed as godly leaders in
the eyes of the creatures (even though ample evidence points to their abuse by
Consequently, this reflects the superior wizarding feeling that having magic gives a
person power and elite status. Upon analyzing this statue, one can conclude that
wizards are being portrayed as dominant over every living creature and human.
J.K Rowling has a particular way of portraying the racist characters in her
novels. Uncoincidently, all of the evil racist characters are mean or biologically
awkward. These descriptions make the reader unable to like the character or
connect to him or her. In turn, they see the character’s racist ideas as wrong. To
begin, Draco Malfoy is portrayed several times as malicious and unfeeling. When
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the first incident of the Chamber of Secrets occurs, Rowling creates the scene
where Draco states “You’ll be next, Mudbloods!“ and follows with the description
“He had pushed to the front of the crowd, his cold eyes alive, his usually bloodless
face flushed, as he grinned at the sight of the hanging, immobile cat” (Rowling,
Chamber of Secrets 139). This scene definitely portrays the notion of Draco being a
racist by using the term “mud-blood” to refer to the muggle-born. In addition, they
way he pushed thought the crowd serves as evidence that he thinks he is superior
to everyone else and can treat them unfairly. To portray him as unfavorable,
Rowling provides Malfoy with an adverse description of “cold eyes” and a “usually
blood-less face.” With these “cold eyes alive” and “usually bloodless face flushed”
one can assume that Draco is excited by the killing of people inferior to him.
The Gaunt family also receives unnerving depictions from Rowling. Morfin
Gaunt, the man who tried to harm a muggle was described as having “thick hair so
matted with dirt it could have been any color. Several of his teeth were missing. His
eyes were small and dark and stared in opposite directions. He might have looked
comical, but he did not; the effect was frightening” (Rowling, Half-Blood Prince 201).
Rowling’s zany description of the character could only go with her belief that
Morfin’s racist ideas are as crazy as his description. The evil Lord Voldemort also
has disturbing characteristics that make his racist ideals not relatable. Upon his
return to power, Harry describes his face as “whiter than a skull, with wide, livid
scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snake’s with slits for nostrils” (Rowling,
Goblet of Fire 643). With his snake-like inhuman appearance, Lord Voldemort is
In addition to the evil characters being racist, there are also several
characters that do not follow Voldemort who engage in racist actions or comments.
borns happens in the last book of the series, Deathly Hallows. At this time in the
series, countless muggle-borns go into hiding because Lord Voldemort and his
purifying Death Eaters are rising to power. As they progress to take over the
Ministry of Magic, a law passes that requires all muggle-borns to register under the
government. The muggle-borns will have their wand snapped unless they can prove
that they have at least one magical family member. With this registration, the
muggle-borns are blamed for illegally stealing magical powers, which made them fit
for the punishment of death. Unfortunately, no one fights to stop this act because it
became law. People are afraid of challenging the law because they fear that they
will bring up on trial against society and therefore will not be accepted .Thus, the
wizarding community continues to let this racist action happen to comply with the
comparison to the Nazi’s acts to Jewish people in Germany under Hitler’s regime.
Hilter hated the Jews and used them as a scapegoat for Germany’s problems after
the First World War. He believed that a country who allowed mixed-blood marriages
would fall, and promoted propaganda against all Jews. Thus, he banned marriage
and sexual relations with Jews, and required Jews to register under the government.
“Nuremberg Laws,” or the “Law for the Protection of German Blood and German
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“mischling,” a person of mixed race (Gellately 123). This is similar to the derogatory
term of “mud-blood” in Harry Potter. Next, the names of Jews were published in the
newspapers, just as names of muggles were in Rowling’s work. Finally, one should
note that Jews were charged with “race defilement” (Gellately 125). Muggle-borns
were accused of illegally stealing power from wizards, just as Jews were charged
with corrupting the human race. In both cases, all of these regulations were
accepted in society by the people because they came from the government who
Longerich’s idea that people who disagreed “dared object only on pragmatic
grounds about the violence or the destruction of property” (123). With this quote,
Longerich explains that most Germans felt they had boundaries to the extent of
their actions due to fear of what may happen to them if they publically disagree
with the regime. Thus, to be accepted by society, Germans followed the laws of the
country regardless of their horrid content for the purpose of saving their own lives.
This can also be justified to the Harry Potter series by the limited actions that
Voldemort. Mikhail Lyubansky also offers ideas as to why racist actions persist. In
his article, he deals with racism in Harry Potter by poking fun at Voldemort’s
taboo subject among many people in society. Thus, the people that do nothing
about racial actions are not drawing attention towards racism, to fit into society.
This was just like in Nazi Germany. Marion Kaplan notes that “the regime
transformed Jews into the object of a general hateful taboo” (Gellately 123). Here,
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Jews were not to be talked about, just an object of unjustified hatred. This taboo was
done to avoid speculation and criticism about Nazi actions. Similarly, Voldemort and
his regime utilize for their baseless loathing towards the muggles.
With this event in the Harry Potter books, a reader can see that this parallel
of history is extremely important. Edmund Kern states in his article that “Harry’s
adventures may gently encourage readers to see both themselves and important
contemporary issues in light of current events” (194). I disagree by the use of his
word “gently.” I believe with the support by all of my evidence from my primary and
secondary sources that the series strongly displays current events and issues of
racism that are happening in the world. In fact, I believe that the allegories of
racism are so strong that they are hard for a reader to miss, and serve as excellent
racism. Thus, I reiterate the Nazi-Voldemort allegory. Even though the Nazi regime
history. It shows that if people had joined together against the evil fear spreading
dictator, things may have gone differently. Thousands of people’s lives would have
been saved if the people of Germany or the wizards took actions to stand up for
what is moral.
Both good and bad characters engage in “passing” to fit in with wizarding
society. Passing is the act of “denying racial heritage to avoid prejudice” (Ostry
195). This is a racial act because people who use this wish to be something else, all
because they are uncomfortable with the racial groups they are in. The Death
Eaters engage in passing when they all claim to be pure-blood. They refute their
muggle heritage to comply with their own society sculpted by Lord Voldemort, the
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muggle-hating Dark Lord. Professor Snape is one of these Death Eaters. However,
readers come to find in Deathly Hallows that Snape is a good character who is a
Death Eater to act as a “double-agent" for Dumbledore. This way, he can trick Lord
Voldemort into trusting him and can pass information which could be key to his
muggle heritage, Snape has ulterior motives for his racist attitude when one
examines his father. When Harry trespasses into Snape’s memories he sees “a
a corner” (Rowling, Order of the Phoenix, 592). In another memory, a young Snape
and Lily are talking. “’How are things at your house?’ Lily asked. A little crease
appeared between his eyes. ‘Fine,’ he said….He picked up a fistful of leaves and
began tearing them apart, apparently unaware of what he was doing” (Rowling,
Deathly Hallows 667). Both of these memories serve to show that Snape had an
abusive muggle father. In the first memory, the woman would not be cowering if
she wasn’t afraid that the shouting man (Snape’s father) would hit her. In the
about his home. The crease amid his eyes is a sign of worry, as well as the action of
him subconsciously picking apart the leaves. By him being out of mind, this also
shows that he is in deep thought about his home life. Thus, Snape was probably
concerned with the state of his mother and himself from being abused at home.
Naturally, Snape grew up hating muggles just because his father did not treat him
well in his early life. In addition, Snape was majorly unpopular and bullied
throughout his Hogwarts career. However, he found friends among the future Death
using racial slurs. Therefore, it is concluded that he originally acts racist towards
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muggles and muggle-borns to feel superior to his cruel father, in addition to being
accepted his friends. Then once he figures out the error of his beliefs, he acts racist
Even the greatest of wizards, Harry’s valued mentor Albus Dumbledore, had
a racist attitude of muggles and wizarding superiority to fulfill his thirst for power.
When he was young, he believed that the wizards were superior beings to muggles,
and it was the wizard’s duty to control them. He explains that this obligation is for
Yes, we have been giver power and yes, that power gives us the right
to rule, but it also gives us responsibilities over the ruled. That power
gives us the right to rule, but it also gives us responsibility over the
ruled…..We seize control FOR THE GREATER GOOD. And from this it
follows that where we meet resistance, we must use only the force that
Thus, Dumbledore sought to control muggles by force under the notion that wizards
are better than muggles because they are more powerful. He justifies his racial
belief as correct by thinking that the need to control the muggles is for their own
protection. However, his idea proved to be more dangerous and bluntly wrong
when it was put to action. Grindelwald eventually rose to be a dark and powerful
army of wizards seeking to build a wizarding realm to overthrow the muggles. Using
a totalitarian regime turned out to hurt more people than help them. Even though
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the basis of Dumbledore’s idea was for the good cause of protection, people were
acts as a catalyst for his racist actions. Therefore, he unconsciously reflects the
beliefs and values of the general wizard community even if they go against a
certain group in society. One type of creature that are victims of racist actions by
wizards are the giants. In the series, they are described as having an unmanageable
ferocious lifestyle and low intelligence. These beings are forced to live in the
mountains, segregated from wizards. Even though they were threatening, no wizard
sought to tame them and treat them as equals because wizards thought their
society superior towards the giant’s culture. When Ron describes his beliefs to
Harry, he says, “They’re just vicious, giants… they’re like trolls…they just like
killing, everyone knows that” (Rowling, Goblet of Fire, 430). Here, he reflects the
wizarding racist belief that giants are uncivilized. By saying “everyone knows that,”
he is falsely assuming that all people agree to this statement. He is also displaying
that this has become a normal wizarding belief about giants. An exception to this
statement is the gamekeeper and Harry’s close friend, Hagrid. After an adventure,
he brought back his giant half-brother, Grawp to tame him. Throughout the series,
Hagrid works at this goal, and achieves some level of success. Grawp starts
speaking English and becomes less violent. Hence, Grawp is able to become
civilized and treated like an equal if given the chance. However, most wizards
deem this task unfathomable just like Ron because they were taught the racist
belief and it was normalized to think that giants are wild, vicious creatures.
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Ron also reflects the racist beliefs of society through his notion regarding
house-elves. He believes that the elves are just fine how they are. Even at fourteen
years old, Ron uses the phrase “we’ve ben working like house-elves” as an
expression to refer to intense work (Rowling, Goblet of Fire 223). By using this
Therefore he sees nothing wrong with what he is referring to, even at the maturity
level of a teenager. Hermione, unlike Ron, sees the injustice involved in elf
at Hogwarts…But don’t they get paid?...They get holidays, don’t they? And sick-
leave, and pensions, and everything?” (Rowling, Goblet of Fire 181-82). With these
questions and the answer of no, she takes it upon herself to start an organization
called the “Society to Promote Elvish Welfare.” Despite her efforts, Ron is
even tells Hermione to “open [her] ears. They. Like. It. They like being enslaved!”
(Rowling, Goblet of Fire 224). However, how does he know how an elf feels? This
house-elves is to leave hats out for them to receive so they can be free. Even when
she thinks she succeeds, Ron makes fun of her idea, “The hats have gone,"
Hermione said happily. "Seems the house-elves do want freedom after all.""I
wouldn't bet on it," Ron told her cuttingly. "They might not count as clothes. They
didn't look anything like hats to me, more like woolly bladders" (Rowling, Order of
the Phoenix 256). By insulting her, he is making her intentions sound silly and
was not by accident that Rowling gave Hermione the most prominently activist role
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in the series. Hermione is extremely smart and is even called “the cleverest witch of
Hermione, a reader can conclude that her actions are intellectual, and that she can
be a reliable leader. Thus, they will see that it is intelligent to be politically active,
and Hermione’s actions against racism are correct and reasonable. People will then
picture is definitely being shaped that Ron is a racist. However, Steven Patterson
comes to Ron’s defense in his article. He claims, “It is true that the house-elf
enslavement is a bad thing, but just because it is bad doesn’t mean that others
have a duty to prevent it. After all, it is unreasonable to hold everyone to a duty to
make the world a more perfect place” (110). However, one can argue that a
disadvantaged people, even if their actions were only on a very low scale to prevent
this racism. Only society’s influence can cloud these natural moral feelings, as it
However, with Ron’s attitude regarding the giants, Karen Brown expresses “if
it were not for his friendship with Hermione and Harry, Ron might never have come
to an understanding that [race] simply does not matter” (9). This can be considered
true due to Ron’s wizarding upbringing and the superior feeling and notions it
comes with. However, it can be assumed that Ron’s character is morally good, but
his feelings against certain groups are due to “ignorant hatred” (Kern 62). This
means that due to his upbringing, his beliefs are baseless because he is only
not. Therefore, one must actively stand up to racism so that people who are
unaware of their own racist actions, like Ron, can realize the wrongs that they do
unintentionally racist in the Harry Potter novels, J.K Rowling implies that the reader
must take action to reverse this horrid notion. Brycchan Carey makes the
observation in his article that the Harry Potter novels “offer a range of political
models for young people to explore and emulate” (106). In saying so, the novels
can act as the guidelines of action if a reader wants to bring racial mistreatment to
attention. Thus, the books teach the readers to be abolitionists, and to recognize
Lord Voldemort. First, he notes Harry has a “team playing spirt” (105). Harry knows
he cannot accomplish his task because of lacking skill or ability; therefore, he relies
on the help others, like Hermione, Ron, and Dumbledore to achieve his goals. With
this model, a person is taught that it is appropriate to have others help in order to
overcome racism. Courtney Strimel supports Carey’s argument that teamwork can
help achieve a goal to conquer racism. In her article, she brings up the example of
the Muggles being tortured both physically and psychologically at the Quidditch
World Cup by the Death Eaters. Even though the Death Eaters spread their chaotic
terror and was frightening, she notes that the wizards who stopped the act were
calm and worked together. Thus, racial actions can be halted if people remember to
stay unruffled and join together as a team. Another example of defeating racist
actions as a team is in the seventh Harry Potter novel. When they enter the Ministry
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of Magic, Harry, Ron, and Hermione stray away from their initial operation to help
the countless muggle-borns escape their registration and death sentence. Here,
they are risking their lives to execute a great counter-action to save numerous lives
of innocent people. Together, they distract the Ministry and fight for each other’s
safety when their actions become noticed. Thus, only with teamwork could they
Carey also brings attention to the political model that Hermione emulates to
overcome racism and prejudice when she creates her S.P.E.W. campaign. He notes
that her actions are “rational and public minded” (105). Therefore, she uses her
witnesses of house-elf mistreatment to motivate her actions. In doing so, she relies
on her own intelligence and emotions to instruct her with what she needs to do to
achieve her goal. Other characters follow Hermione’s model of action to stand up
against racism and prejudice. At the earliest introduction of racism in the books
where Hermione is made fun of by Draco, Ron attempts to curse him for his actions.
Like Hermione, he is being rational by relying on his experiences and his concerned
thinks is right. Ron thinks that racism should not be tolerated or expressed
the sixth novel. Professor Slughorn makes a comment to Harry that, “[I] Thought
she must have been pure-blood, she was so good” (Rowling, Half-Bood Prince 70)
class. He then comments that it is odd that it happens to be that some muggle-
borns are intelligent. Harry on the other hand, rushes to the muggle-born’s defense.
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prejudice and that this belief is wrong. Therefore, Harry is taking direct action to
notify Slughorn of his unjust actions of prejudice. Ultimately, he acts through his
feelings towards her. In conclusion, Harry is also relying on his experiences and
Certain deeds of the characters give hope for the overcoming of racism in the
wizarding world. With racist and non-racist actions and feelings displayed by the
characters, a reader can conjecture the correct moral path in life. Upon this
discovery, they learn to stray away from racism by tolerating people different from
themselves in the real world, which is the central lesson of the Harry Potter series.
Thus, literature can be very important in a person’s life because stories like Harry
Potter show examples of moral actions of fighting against racism and prejudice that
are often missed by people in reality. In this way, children’s literature becomes that
much more complex by inexplicitly shaping the attitudes of its readers, making the
world a better and more tolerant place. Peter Hollingdale abridges this idea
chaos” (30).
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Works Cited
Anatol, Giselle Liza, ed. Reading Harry Potter: critical essays. Westport, CT: Praeger
Carey, Brycchan. “Hermione and the House-Elves: The Literary and Historical
Gellately, Robert. Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany. New York:
Hollingdale, Peter. “Ideology and the Children’s Book.” New York, NY: Thimble Press,
1988. Print.
Kern, Edmund M. “The Wisdom of Harry Potter: What Our Favorite Hero Teaches Us
Lyubansky, Mikhail. “Harry Potter and the Word that shall not Be Named.” The
Lived. Ed. Neil Mulholland. Dallas, TX: Boenbella Books, 2006. 233-48. Print.
Ostry, Elaine. “Accepting Mudbloods: The Ambivalent Social Vision of J.K. Rowling’s
Indifference, and Social Justice." Harry Potter and philosophy: if Aristotle ran
Hogwarts . Baggett, David, and Shawn Klein, eds. Peru, IL: Carus Publishing
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. New York: Scholastic, 1999.
Print.
---. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. New York: Scholastic, 2007.Print.
---. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. New York: Scholastic, 2000. Print.
---. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. New York: Scholastic, 2005. Print.
---. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. New York: Scholastic, 2003. Print.
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