Blog Post #2- Harry is Coming of Age

Within the Harry Potter series you get the definite sense that you are growing up along with the characters. Parallels can be drawn when we compare certain experiences and character development within the series to our own lives. One of the best characters with which we can see development in the series is Harry Potter himself because we get a perspective from inside his thoughts. With a certain amount of empathy we can begin to understand how he personally feels about his experiences and how he has changed or grown as a result of them.

A good example to start off with is when he hears the prophecy and mulls it over for a while. At some book in book six, he goes to Dumbledore’s office for a Pensieve meeting and tells Dumbledore that he has come to the conclusion that he is forced by the prophecy to either become a murderer or be another murder victim himself. To this Dumbledore tells Harry that the prophecy is not a binding contract, but it is actually Harry’s own life that would lead him to do what he has to do. Dumbledore basically says that if the prophecy hadn’t been made, but the experiences in his life had still happened, he would still want to be the one to do Voldemort in. This results in Harry having a better understanding of how he got to where he is by his own experiences and that he does have a matter of free will in his life. Despite knowing this, he still wants to (knows he must) continue on his journey to defeat Voldemort.

Another example happens in the first half of the seventh book. Harry is still coping with the aftermath of Dumbledore’s death. While thinking by himself, he reflects on how he has never grown up with a parental figure to hold his hand through the tough times. His parents died when he was only a year old, he only knew his godfather for about 2 years, and just when things started getting complicated about how to destroy Voldemort, Dumbledore gets murdered. It is then that Harry thinks he should’ve realized from the beginning that he was always going to have to be without anyone wiser than himself helping him. So now he is taking on a more serious undertone and trying to do the task of defeating Voldemort by himself, if his friends would let him that is.

Both of these parts lead up to the fact that Harry is learning more about who he is and who he is to become. The coming of age theme really starts to become a more prominent feature in the series from book 5 on.