The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, is based on British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain made the mistake of signing the Munich Agreement. Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia anyways and Britain did not take any action to stop this. Fudge refused to believe the Dark Lord had returned and as a result, Voldemort was able to come to power. Neither ministers took any initiative. Efforts of the French Resistance and the American and British intervention are symbolic of Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix.
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| Does this caption remind anyone of WW2 propaganda? |
Going back to the idea of "pure-blood" wizards being the superior race, this is obvious particularly in the Slytherin house. The rights of "mud-bloods" are being taken away. Toward the later books, the "Muggle-born registration commission" is started. "Mud-bloods" are interrogated by the evil Dolores Umbridge and the corrupt wizarding government does not recognize them as wizards. Efforts are made to protect people like Hermione Granger. Another element of symbolism are the dementors. The dementors extract happiness from others. This despair created mirrors that of concentration camps.
Sources:
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/features/essays/issue27/nazi-germany/
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/chamberlain-and-hitler/
This was such an interesting post Rebecca! I had never even thought of connecting past historical events to the books we read today until I saw this post. I was curious about what other novels contained symbols of World War II and after a little research, I discovered that Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, also contains many references to WWII. Written in 1954, it would make sense within the historical context that Golding would draw on his own personal experiences to complete his writing, so it is not as revolutionary as your harry potter discovery that WWII symbolism can be found in Lord of the Flies. While I have not read the book, so I can't really describe in detail why WWII is alluded to in this book, I did find some great articles about the connection between the two.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/academic/article/247332/Lord-of-the-Flies-and-WW2/
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/lord-of-the-flies/about-lord-of-the-flies
I think that these are interesting topics to compare, but as you said, it is not indicative that the books are totally based off of World War II. I think a lot of the elements from the Harry Potter books are more just good elements of a conflict in stories. An underground resistance of protagonists is fairly common in storytelling, and I don't think it really represents the French resistance and occupation as much as more just being an interesting part of the story. I also don't really see much of how the British and American are represented, because Harry and his friends were considered underdogs compared to Voldemort, whereas in reality, the German forces were the ones that were outnumbered by the Americans, British, and Russians. I do think the point about appeasement and the superior race are interesting though.
ReplyDeleteI think this theory about Harry Potter is really interesting, and in some regards, WWII fits with Harry Potter quite well, but I think I agree with Nathan. The ideas and events of WWII show up in the books simply because WWII was a classic conflict scenario where someone (Hitler) wants to take over the world. I'm not saying that this idea is totally wrong, because it's not, it makes some very good points such as the ideas of "pure-bloods" and "mud-bloods" which are weirdly close the perfect German race. However, some of the other points are a bit stretched. Some parts of the book may have been influenced by the WWII and Nazism because they definitely show up, but I think that "race wars" are a common occurrence in history, Rowling could have drawn ideas from any of these similar events in history.
ReplyDeleteWow, this just came together for me right now. The Malfoys (Malcom and his dad), both were members of the slytherin party and had blonde hair, giving him the physical appearance of the superior race, not to mention Voldemort doesn't resemble the superior race, just like Hitler himself didn't actually fit into his Aryan race. I agree that the book cannot be taken as a direct symbol of WW2 and the Holocaust because those must have been much worse and the book is all a fantasy, but I definitely do see the connection.
ReplyDeleteI've always been a big fan of the series, but I've never thought about the many similarities it shared with the World War II period. I was particularly interested in how you compared the efforts of the French Resistance and the American and British intervention to Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix. It turns out that the French resistance movement got to a difficult start due to the many political complexities that were present in France at the time of the war, just as the Order of the Phoenix faced many challenges regarding its establishment due to corruption in the wizard government. However, following their onsets, both were able to effectively resist the evil powers plaguing their respective worlds - the Order of the Phoenix against Voldemort, and France against Hitler. The French resistance attacked the Germans whenever possible, provided indispensable information for the war effort, and assisted in the evacuation of Allied airmen. Both American and British intervention played important roles in the supplying of troops and arsenal, as well as the cracking of German war codes, such as the infamous Enigma.
ReplyDeleteSources:
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/french_resistance.htm
It's no secret that authors often use historical events as a basis for their own stories, and it's really cool how you showed this in such a well known series. Another character from Harry Potter that resembles Hitler is Grindelwald. Grindelwald thinks that wizards are superior to the muggles and therefore they should be conquered. This is similar to Hitler's Aryan race, the blond haired and blue eyed people, who were thought to be better than others and therefore should rule. Grindelwald also wanted to use muggles as slaves. This is also seen though Hitler's treatment of the Jewish people: he put them in concentration camps and made them work for the German war effort. Grindelwald also adopted a symbol, the deathly hollows, while Hitler adopted the swastika. Grindelwald also used propaganda and slogans to get others to rally behind him. His slogan was "For The Greater Good." This is similar to the signs posted outside concentration camps that read "Arbeit Macht Frei" - "work makes (man) free". It is also no coincidence that Grindelwald was defeated in the same year that Hitler died, 1945. In an interview with J.K. Rowling she confirmed that some of the characters in the series were indeed inspired by the anti-Semitism seen in World War 2.
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