Harry Potter and the Privileges of Birth

[beckj at pepperlaw.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 29022

	The Harry Potter character is the epitome of a diamond in the 
rough. He is courageous, considerate, and generous to a fault.  He is 
not one to get wrapped up in his celebrity or to lord his special 
gifts over others.  Given the chance, he opts not to kill (or have 
Sirius kill) the the betrayer of his parents to Voldemort.  Harry 
shows a strong internal conscience regarding good and evil, and there 
is never any doubt what side he is on.  But nonetheless Harry Potter 
can be a somewhat dangerous example, because in many ways these 
attributes are essentiall the noblesse oblige of rapidly vanishing 
British aristocracy 

	First and foremost, Harry is one of the elect, born into the 
select and secret elite. Witches and wizards, like the old English 
aristocracy, know they are superior to the surrounding muggle world.  
The muggle masses have no idea the game that is afoot, and a central 
tenet of wizard philosophy is that unless things stay that way there 
will be a disaster.  Accommodating wizards like the Weasleys view 
muggles with a sort of superior amusement at the clumsy way 
nonmagical people have to do things. This is the attitude taught at 
Hogwarts – Hermione, with two muggle parents, writes a paper for in 
Muggle Studies on "Why Muggles Need Electricity."  Less accomodating 
wizards, like the Malfoys, are much worse, treating muggles with 
contempt, as untermenschen.  But all wizards, nasty and nice, agree 
on the danger of a muggle discovery of the existence of the wizarding 
community.  From what we know, the Ministry of Magic is primarily 
devoted to keeping muggles from finding this out.  So even before 
Harry knows it, he is on the right side of the tracks in a divided 
world of two groups – the small, smart minority who know what's up, 
and a vast, muggle proletariat – stupid and potentially dangerous 
(think Dursleys) – who inhabit an ignorant world of their own 
illusions.

	Somehow this dichotomy continues despite the Hermiones of the 
world.  We don't know:  (1) how muggle parents of juvenile wizards 
like Hermione are persuaded to send their children to Hogwarts, (2) 
where they acquire galleons for tuition and knuts for Diagon Alley 
school supplies, and most importantly (3) why none of them spill the 
beans to all the other muggles.  Is it a spell, or the lure of at 
least partial membership in the secret society of the elite?  As 
muggle born (or "mudblood" in the eyes of the last ditchers), 
Hermione herself is the butt of prejudice from the Slytherin crowd.  
Hermione tries to overcome the prejudice with intelligence and 
accomplishments – just as Unitarian strivers of the Scottish business 
class sought to enter the Anglican aristocracy in the nineteenth 
century.  Hermione undertakes to learn everything there is to know 
about being a witch, in the hope that by getting the top marks she 
will become an insider.  So far that hasn't happened.  Hermoine 
becomes miserable when all that book learning fails to make born 
wizards and witches like her.  One avenue of release for her appears 
to be the radical politics of the House Elf Liberation Front, which 
again parallels the radicalism of the British meritocrats like T.S. 
Huxley as they sought to take over Edwardian institutions. While 
Hermoine constantly quarrels with Ron Weasley, she wants very much to 
be friends (and possibly more, someday I'll review the Hermoine/Mrs. 
Weasley parallels) with him because Ron hails from a big, happy, 
pureblood family and is a wizard without being snobbish about it.  
Hermione is always nervous about how she's doing and always on edge 
that something will go wrong for her.  Her only protection is to be 
perfect, to figure out the basilisks and unregistered animagi, and 
nobody's perfect – especially as a preteen.

	Harry, on the other hand, is the elite of the elite.  
Although raised muggle, he's the born superstar or the hidden crown 
prince.  He's rich, which helps now and will help more as he gets 
older.  He was famous before he arriving at Hogwarts – the "new 
celebrity."  He's destined to be the BMOC.  Even though he never 
heard of Quidditch he's an exceptional player from the moment he 
first picks up a broom.  It's inevitable that he will grow up to do 
extraordinary things, that's what the series is about.  As a result, 
Harry consistently gets special treatment not available even to the 
run-of-the-mill wizard.  Time after time he receives gifts from adult 
benefactors or older students – the Nimbus, the Firebolt, an 
invisibility cloak, the Marauder's Map.  He gets advanced wizarding 
instruction from Dumbledore, from Lupin, from (fake) Moody and even 
from Hagrid.  Only Snape, Malfoy, and Filch detest him, and the 
reason appears to be jealousy – either of him or of his pedigree. 
Harry positively glides through Hogwarts despite his overflowing 
extracurricular plate.  If Harry didn't have adult enemies out to get 
him, he would not face any significant problems at school. 

	But how does Harry solve his real problems?  Through special 
treatment.  Because of who he is – predestined to do battle with the 
fearsome Voldemort – Harry is above the law.  He breaks school 
rules.  He blows up his aunt in violation of wizard law pertaining to 
both underage use of magic, and use of magic among muggles, but the 
Minister of Magic himself covers for him,  He goes everywhere he is 
forbidden to go.  Through adroit lies and omissions, Harry conceals 
important facts from his teachers, from Dumbledore on down.  Harry 
puts the lives of other students at risk.  He helps Buckbeak and 
Sirius escape death sentences imposed by the Ministry of Magic.  
Every crisis has Harry breaking adult rules and defying adult 
authority to follow his own inevitably correct judgment – and Harry 
encourages both the precocious Hermione and the faithful Ron to do 
the same.  Harry is always forgiven because he is right and the 
rules, his teachers (except for the all-knowing Dumbledore) and the 
government are wrong.  Dumbledore first forgives, then rewards him, 
and finally invites him into his own machinations against the 
Ministry. 

	Harry's adventures are a cross between the birthright of 
aristocracy and the egoism of Nietzche's "superman."  One lesson 
being learned by Harry's young readers is that if you're really 
special (and who isn't), and you know better than most adults (and 
who doesn't), you will succeed by acting upon your own judgment of 
what's right in preference to doing what your elders tell you to do.  
Those few adults who are wise (Dumbledore) or hip (Lupin) will agree 
with you and help you out.  The other adults, those in the way, are 
either evil (you know who), obnoxious (Snape), frauds (Lockhart and 
Trelawney), bullies (Lucius Malfoy), or weaklings (Wormtail and 
probably most of Voldemort's followers).  JKR is a successful author 
who knows how to flatter as well as to challenge her audience, and it 
is likely that many of Harry's young fans are learning some 
interesting moral lessons about the world, their place in it, and how 
to better that place.

-- Bexis