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Harry Potter's Effect on the Real World
- Olivia Morgan
- Nov 18, 2016
- 5 min read
The Harry Potter series, written by J.K. Rowling, has sold over 450 million copies translated in 67 languages as of 2015. From when the first book was published in June 1997 all the way until June 2011, the series has captivated audiences. Not only have the books received numerous awards and had its literacy value acclaimed, it has also inspired video games, toys, theme parks, clothing, and other popular products. However, this series that has become one of the greatest literature and cinematic successes in history and by working its way into the hearts of fans of all ages, it has been able to impact audiences by allowing them to feel reliability which has positively impacted their views regarding prejudice, politics, and social barriers.
The Harry Potter series is made up of 7 books and 8 movies and begin with orphan Harry at the age of 11 living with his aunt, uncle, and cousin. He soon discovers that he is a wizard and goes on to attend a magic school for witches and wizards called Hogwarts to learn how to preform magic. He attends school, meets his two best friends Ron and Hermione along with countless others, grows into a talented and brave young man, and fights against his greatest enemy Voldemort several times throughout the years.
The main villain in the series Voldemort, has been greatly compared by fans and scholars as to sharing similar qualities and views as Adolf Hitler, who today the majority of the population associates as a real-life villain. According to Loris Vezzali, studies and tests were done to see if children associate more with the character Harry or more with the character and how that has impacted children's views on immigration. In the results, it was found that students who feel more associated with Harry over Voldemort took more of a positive perspective towards refugees. Later information acknowledges that even though these tests were focused more on the correlation between the student’s identification with the characters and correlating their perspectives. Vezzali explains, “Specifically, the theory accords a pivotal role to identification with characters: People should align with the character and his/her view of the world only when they identify with him/her” (Vennali). It was found and explained that changes in one’s attitude can be produced if and when one finds relevancy in a character in whom they can relate to. Studies show that not only do one’s attitudes change just when they identify and share perspective with a character in a book, but also when they dis-identify from a negative character (Vezzali).
Vezzali was not the only scholar to find that this well-known series has attributions in society correlated with the Harry Potter series. Gierzynski and Eddy's book, Harry Potter and the Millennials talks about how studies such as surveys and interviews have shown that the generation born between 1982 and 2002 have more political tolerance and acceptance when it comes to diversity due to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Natalie Hendry explains “Millennials’ media consumption during their politically formative years has indirect and direct implications on their voting practices and attitudes to authority and power” (Hendry). It has been shown that Millennial's media usage has direct and non-direct impacts on their voting tendencies and views towards authority and power figures.
From audience's attitudes adjusting to a subject that mirrors the attitudes and views of the characters in which they identify (Vennali) along with the media usage directly affecting the tolerance and acceptance of diversity in Millennial's (Kozlowska), it is safe to say that the Harry Potter series can touch and influence fans of many ages. According to Hanna Kozlowska, “The lessons that Mr. Gierzynski identified in the series included diversity and acceptance, political tolerance and equality. Through surveys of 1,141 college students in the United States, Mr. Gierzynski and his associates found "Harry Potter" fans to be more tolerant, but also "to be less authoritarian, to be more opposed to the use of violence and torture, to be less cynical, and to evince a higher level of political efficacy. They are also more liberal, with a more negative view of the Bush years” (Kozlowska). It is important to remember the wide range of topics also associated with the series that helps add diversity to what is influencing the minds of viewers and readers today. One of these subjects that J.K. Rowling does not fail to include in the series, is the wide range of social boundaries and social segregation (Hunziker). The series centers around the character Harry who is unaware of these social boundaries when he enters the wizarding world. However once entering the world, many of these boundaries start to become apparent over the years such as but not limited to the socio-economic, racial, enslaved beings, blood status, political standpoint, and even magical creatures vs magical humans. Harry's status in this world, ends up being rather exclusive and a contradiction of itself due to him being a wealthy, rich, white boy with decent blood status who was brought up abused and malnourished in a muggle upbringing. Throughout the series, J.K. uses these different social barriers that parallels the Marxist Pyramid to create various conflicts that can be used to underline the storyline as she even goes as far into detail as to echo the human race with all of these radicalized communities and show each species’ different cultures and norms and how they conflict and are viewed differently to represent human's culture in the real world. She even goes as far to create blood-status being a major political factor in the series to mirror skin color. According to Alyssa Hunziker, “Because the series features its characters' socio-economic, racial, and ideological differences and, according to Jackie C. Horne, showcases "four types of racial other" -- "evil other; dangerous but used other; enslaved other; and separatist other" -- Harry's status crosses these boundaries as he is a victim of exclusion (as a result of his status as orphan, his muggle upbringing, muggle-born mother, and his often ridiculed ability to speak parseltongue), and is also an effectively assimilated (or included) member of the hegemonic white wizarding society by virtue of his celebrity” (Hunziker). Rowling uses these different boundaries to allow the readers and viewers to feel more connected to the story by allowing them to follow Harry as he serves as the reader's guide allowing readers to view and relate to the shared exclusions and experiences in this world.
To conclude, with the Harry Potter series being one of the best-selling series sense it came out in 1997, it has had a huge impact on society. It allows audiences to relate which has positively impacted their views regarding prejudice, politics, and social barriers.
Source Cited
Hendry, Natalie Ann. "Harry Potter and The Millennials: Research Methods and The Politics
of the Muggle Generation." International Journal of Social Research Methodology 17.6 (2014): 742-743. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 April 2017.
Hunziker, Alyssa. "The Embodiment of Collective Exclusion: Transcending the Borders Of
Social Segregation in Harry Potter." Disclosure 22 (2013): 54-60. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 April 2017.
Kozlowska, Hanna. "Can 'Harry Potter' Change the World?" The New York Times. The New
York Times, 17 Sept. 2014. Web. 19 Apr. 2017.
Vezzali, Loris, et al. "The Greatest Magic of Harry Potter: Reducing Prejudice." Journal Of
Applied Social Psychology 45.2 (2015): 105-121. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 April 2017.
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