This essay will examine the history of reading to children while analyzing the ways in which the figure of the child as a reader and individual is portrayed within Harry Potter. This essay will discuss the creation of the book targeted specifically towards the child, while illustrating the co-dependent relationship that is evident between both child and literature, and which extends into adulthood and is often responsible for many of our interpretations of the world. The sense of escapism – often prevalent within the altered realities of children’s literature – illustrate the ways in which the child uses literature to enter a separate reality much suited to their liking, and assists in their individual development and showcases the both the adult and the child in roles entirely dependent on the opinion of the child reader.
Prior to Harry Potter, books before 1990 often dealt with real-life situations involving the likes of “teenage pregnancy, poverty, and drug abuse” (Blake 305). This was the motivation, which led children to become extremely taken with the magical world of Harry Potter and eager for an escape from reality for children being forced to face the truth of the world which had no time to cater to their individual needs, or help guide them through the painful times of adolescence (Nikolajeva 15). The world of Harry Potter allows for children and adolescents alike to become submerged into an alternate reality which they felt like they could relate to, as well as maintaining a cast of flawed characters which each individual child reader could personally identify with (Zipes 292 ). There wasn’t much content which the average young adult would be able to directly relate to, or which was written with the intent of a child reader. Thus, a new audience of readers was invented, as well as a new demographic, hungry for more appealing content (Lerer 223).
As the Harry Potter series continues, we see the child grow up quite suddenly and introduced to into this whole world which comes with the responsibility of having the fate of the entire Wizarding world on his shoulders, and is put up to the task at such a tender age. This often gives the reader a boost of confidence as they feel like they can relate to the tale’s hero, and their journey of many tribulations. “If-he-can-do-it-so-can-I” mentality leads to encouraging outcomes on behalf of the child reader (Gupta 297). Children, adolescents, and adults can all relate to the typical “Hero’s Journey” which Harry’s story embodies, as there are undoubtedly many times in an individual’s life when they often feel misunderstood and in search of the all-consuming power of love through parents, friends, and significant others (Bramwell 144). This concept of relevancy, even within the adult world, is further explained by Children’s Literature expert Andrew Blake, who says “All the Harry Potter stories have something to say about the ways in which we currently think about childhood, adulthood and the family; about the relationship between education and work; about questions of good and evil, personal and collective responsibility” (Blake 309). Rowling is essentially giving the child and adolescent reader an alternate reality within which they can feel as if they belong, and which feels as real to them as their physical reality (Granger 187).
Much of what is read as a child and adolescence, carries a lot of weight into adulthood as the child and adolescent reader have both achieved maturation through reading children’s fantasy by “confronting and accommodating archetypal images” within their lives and using “magic as a vehicle for world-view” (Damour 7). Within Harry Potter, the adult figure is represented in a way which can be both positively, as well as negatively as exemplified by the likes of the detested Dolores Umbridge who is the evil archetype of strict parentage, to the beloved character of Sirius Black, Harry’s confidant and Godfather (Gupta 290). As Harry matures it becomes evident that his audience matures with him, and goes through the same emotional changes which he begins to go through, for the duration of their adolescence and which stick with them into adulthood (Pinsent 17).
Works Cited
Blake, Andrew. “Harry Potter and the Reinvention of the Past.” Children’s Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 303-10. Print.
Damour, Lisa. “Harry the Teenager: Muggle Themes in a Magical Adolescence.” Reading Harry Potter Again. Santa Barbara: Praegger, 2009. 1-10. Print.
Damour, Lisa. “Harry the Teenager: Muggle Themes in a Magical Adolescence.” Reading Harry Potter Again. Santa Barbara: Praegger, 2009. 1-10. Print.
Granger, John, and Gregory Bassham. “Just in Your Head? J.K. Rowling on Separating Reality from Illusion.” The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2010. 185-97. Print.
Gupta, Suman. Re-Reading Harry Potter. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print.
Gupta, Suman. “The Unthinkingness of Harry Potter.” Children’s Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 297-303. Print.
Lerer, Seth. Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History from Aesop -Harry Potter. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2008. 168+. Print.
Nikolajeva, Maria. Power, Voice and Subjectivity in Literature. Ed. Jack Zipes. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.
Pinsent, Pat. “Theories of Genre and Gender: Change and Continuity in the School Story.”
Modern Children’s Literature. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. 8-21. Print.
Zipes, Jack. “The Phenomenon of Harry Potter, or Why All the Talk?” Children’s Literature:
Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 289-96. Print.